Augustine: DE CIVITATE DEI

[I] Promissiones Dei, quae factae sunt ad Abraham, cuius semini et gentem Israeliticam secundum carnem et omnes gentes deberi secundum fidem Deo pollicente didicimus, quem ad modum compleantur, per ordinem temporum procurrens Dei ciuitas indicabit. Quoniam ergo superioris libri usque ad regnum Dauid factus est finis, nunc ab eodem regno, quantum suscepto operi sufficere uidetur, cetera quae sequuntur adtingimus. Hoc itaque tempus, ex quo sanctus Samuel prophetare coepit, et deinceps, donec populus Israel captiuus in Babyloniam duceretur atque inde secundum sancti Hieremiae prophetiam post septuaginta annos reuersis Israelitis Dei domus instauraretur, totum tempus est prophetarum.

[1] The Promises of God, which were made to Abraham, whose seed both the Israelitic nation according to the flesh and all the nations according to faith we have learned to be owed, with God promising, the City of God, advancing through the order of times, will indicate how they are fulfilled. Since therefore the end of the preceding book was made up to the reign of David, now from that same reign, in so far as seems sufficient for the undertaken work, we touch upon the rest that follow. Therefore this period, from the time when holy Samuel began to prophesy, and thereafter, until the people of Israel was led captive into Babylon and thence, according to the prophecy of holy Jeremiah, after seventy years, the Israelites having returned, the house of God was restored, is the whole time of the prophets.

Quamuis enim et ipsum Noe patriarcham, in cuius diebus uniuersa diluuio terra deleta est, et alios supra et infra usque ad hoc tempus, quo reges in Dei populo esse coeperunt, propter quaedam per eos futura siue quoque nudo significata siue praedicta, quae pertinerent ad ciuitatem Dei regnumque caelorum, non inmerito possumus appellare prophetas, praesertim quia nonnullos eorum id expressius legimus nuncupatos, sicut Abraham, sicut Moysen: tamen dies prophetarum praecipue maximeque hi dicti sunt, ex quo coepit prophetare Samuel, qui et Saulem prius et eo reprobato ipsum Dauid Deo praecipiente unxit in regem, de cuius ceteri stirpe succederent, quousque illos succedere sic oporteret. Quae igitur a prophetis sunt praedicta de Christo, cum moriendo decedentibus et nascendo succedentibus suis membris ciuitas Dei per ista curreret tempora, si omnia uelim commemorare, in inmensum pergitur, primum quia ipsa scriptura, quae per ordinem reges eorumque facta et euenta digerens uidetur tamquam historica diligentia rebus gestis occupata esse narrandis, si adiuuante Dei spiritu considerata tractetur, uel magis uel certe non minus praenuntiandis futuris quam praeteritis enuntiandis inuenietur intenta; (et hoc perscrutando indagare ac disserendo monstrare quam sit operosum atque prolixum et quam multis indiguum uoluminibus, quis ignorat, qui haec uel mediocriter cogitet?) deinde quia ea ipsa, quae ad prophetiam non ambigitur pertinere, ita sunt multa de Christo regnoque caelorum, quae ciuitas Dei est, ut ad hoc aperiendum maior sit disputatio necessaria,quam huius operis modus flagitat. Proinde ita, si potuero, stilo moderabor meo, ut huic operi in Dei uoluntate peragendo nec ea quae supersunt dicam nec ea quae satis sunt praetermittam.

For although we can not without reason call prophets even the patriarch Noah himself, in whose days the whole earth was destroyed by the deluge, and others above and below down to that time when kings began to be in the people of God, on account of certain things to be through them either merely signified or also foretold, which pertained to the City of God and the kingdom of heaven—especially since we read that some of them were more expressly so named, as Abraham, as Moses—yet the days of the prophets are said chiefly and most of all to be these, from the time when Samuel began to prophesy, who, both Saul first and, he being reprobated, David himself at God’s bidding, anointed as king, from whose stock the rest should succeed, as long as it was fitting for them so to succeed. Therefore the things that have been foretold by the prophets concerning Christ, while, with its members departing by dying and succeeding by being born, the City of God ran through these times—if I should wish to recount them all, one proceeds into the boundless, first because that very Scripture which, digesting in order their kings and their deeds and events, seems, as though by historical diligence, to be occupied with narrating things done, if it be considered and handled with the aid of the Spirit of God, will be found intent either more, or at any rate not less, on pre‑announcing things to come than on announcing things past; (and who that so much as moderately reflects on these things is ignorant how to search this out by inquiry and to show it by discussion is laborious and prolix and needs many volumes?) then because those very things which are not doubted to pertain to prophecy are so many about Christ and the kingdom of heaven, which is the City of God, that for opening this a greater disputation would be necessary than the scope of this work demands. Accordingly, thus, if I am able, I will moderate my style, that in accomplishing this work in the will of God I may neither say those things which are superfluous nor omit those things which are sufficient.

[II] In praecedente libro diximus ab initio ad Abrabam promissionum Dei duas res fuisse promissas, unam scilicet, quod terram Chanaan possessurum fuerat semen eius (quod significat, ubi dictum est: Vade in terram, quam tibi demonstrauero, et faciam te in gentem magnam), aliam uero longe praestantiorem non de carnali, sed de spiritali semine, per quod pater est non unius gentis Israeliticae, sed omnium gentium, quae fidei eius uestigia consequuntur; quod promitti coepit his uerbis: Et benedicentur in te omnes tribus terrae; et deinceps aliis multis admodum testimoniis haec duo promissa esse monstrauimus. Erat igitur iam in terra promissionis semen Abrahae, id est populus Israel, secundum carnem atque ibi non solum tenendo ac possidendo ciuitates aduersariorum, uerum etiam reges habendo regnare iam coeperat, impletis de ipso populo promissionibus Dei magna iam ex parte, non solum quae tribus illis patribus, Abrabam Isaac et Iacob, et quaecumque aliae temporibus eorum, uerum etiam quae per ipsum Moysen, per quem populus idem de seruitute Aegyptia liberatus et per quem cuncta praeterita reuelata sunt, temporibus eius, cum populum per heremum duceret, factae fuerant. Neque autem per insignem ducem Iesum Naue, per quem populus ille in promissionis inductus est terram expugnatisque gentibus eam duodecim tribubus, quibus Deus iusserat, diuisit et mortuus est, neque post illum toto tempore iudicium impleta fuerat promissio Dei de terra Chanaan a quodam flumine Aegypti usque ad flumen magnum Euphraten; nec tamen adhuc prophetabatur futurum, sed expectabatur implendum.

[2] In the preceding book we said that from the beginning in the promises of God two things had been promised to Abraham: one, namely, that his seed would possess the land of Canaan (which is signified, where it is said: Go into the land which I will show you, and I will make you into a great nation), the other indeed far more excellent, not of the carnal but of the spiritual seed, by which he is father not of one Israelite nation, but of all the nations that follow the footprints of his faith; which began to be promised in these words: And in you all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed; and thereafter by very many other testimonies we have shown that these two things were promised. Therefore already in the land of promise was the seed of Abraham, that is, the people Israel, according to the flesh; and there it had already begun to reign, not only by holding and possessing the cities of adversaries, but also by having kings, the promises of God concerning that people now in great part fulfilled, not only those which to those three fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whatever others in their times, but also those which through Moses himself—through whom that same people was freed from Egyptian servitude and through whom all past things were revealed—in his times, when he was leading the people through the desert, had been made. Yet neither through the distinguished leader Joshua, son of Nun, through whom that people was led into the land of promise and, the nations having been subdued, he divided it to the twelve tribes, as God had commanded, and died, nor after him in the whole time of the judges, had the promise of God concerning the land of Canaan—from a certain river of Egypt as far as the great river Euphrates—been fulfilled; nor, however, was it yet being prophesied that it would be in the future, but it was being expected to be fulfilled.

Impletum est autem per Dauid et eius filium Salomonem, cuius regnum tanto, quantum promissum fuerat, spatio dilatatum est; uniuersos quippe illos subdiderunt tributariosque fecerunt. Sic igitur in terra promissionis secundum carnem, hoc est in terra Chanaan, sub his regibus semen Abrahae fuerat constitutum, ut nihil deinde superesset, quo terrena illa Dei promissio compleretur, nisi ut in eadem terra, quantum ad prosperitatem adtinet temporalem, per posteritatis successionem inconcusso statu usque ad mortalis huius saeculi terminum gens permaneret Hebraea, si Domini Dei sui legibus oboediret. Sed quoniam Deus nouerat hoc eam non esse facturam, usus est eius etiam temporalibus poenis ad exercendos in ea paucos fideles suos et admonendos qui postea futuri erant in omnibus gentibus, quod eos admoneri oportebat, in quibus alteram promissionem reuelato nouo testamento per incarnationem Christi fuerat impleturus.

But it was fulfilled through David and his son Solomon, whose kingdom was extended to the span as great as had been promised; for they subjected all those peoples and made them tributary. Thus then in the land of promise according to the flesh, that is, in the land of Canaan, under these kings the seed of Abraham had been established, so that thereafter nothing remained by which that earthly promise of God might be completed, except that in the same land, so far as it pertains to temporal prosperity, by a succession of posterity in an unshaken state the Hebrew nation should remain until the end of this mortal age, if it obeyed the laws of the Lord its God. But since God knew that it would not do this, he made use even of its temporal punishments to exercise in it his few faithful ones and to admonish those who were afterwards to be in all the nations, in that which it was meet they be admonished, in whom he was going to fulfill the other promise—with the New Testament revealed—through the incarnation of Christ.

[III] Quocirca sicut oracula illa diuina ad Abraham Isaac et Iacob et quaecumque alia signa uel dicta prophetica in sacris litteris praecedentibus facta sunt, ita etiam ceterae ab isto regum tempore prophetiae partim pertinent ad gentem carnis Abrahae, partim uero ad illud semen eius, in quo benedicuntur omnes gentes coheredes Christi per testamentum nouum ad possidendam uitam aeternam regnumque caelorum; partim ergo ad ancillam, quae in seruitutem generat, id est terrenam Hierusalem, quae seruit cum filiis suis, partim uero ad liberam ciuitatem Dei, id est ueram Hierusalem aeternam in caelis, cuius filii homines secundum Deum uiuentes peregrinantur in terris; sed sunt in eis quaedam, quae ad utramque pertinere intelleguntur, ad ancillam proprie, ad liberam figurate.

[3] Wherefore, just as those divine oracles to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and whatever other prophetic signs or sayings were made in the preceding sacred letters, so also the remaining prophecies from this time of the kings partly pertain to the nation of Abraham’s flesh, but partly to that seed of his in which all nations are blessed, coheirs of Christ through the New Testament for the possessing of eternal life and the kingdom of the heavens; partly, then, to the handmaid, who generates into servitude—that is, the earthly Jerusalem, which is in servitude with her children—but partly to the free city of God, that is, the true Jerusalem, eternal in the heavens, whose children, men living according to God, sojourn upon the earth; but there are in them certain things which are understood to pertain to both—to the handmaid properly, to the free one figuratively.

Tripertita itaque reperiuntur eloquia prophetarum, si quidem aliqua sunt ad terrenam Hierusalem spectantia, aliqua ad caelestem, nonnulla ad utramque. Exemplis uideo probandum esse quod dico. Missus est Nathan propheta, qui regem Dauid argueret de peccato graui et ei, quae consecuta sunt mala, futura praediceret.

Tripartite, therefore, are found the utterances of the prophets, since indeed some pertain to the earthly Jerusalem, some to the celestial, and some to both. I see that what I say must be proved by examples. The prophet Nathan was sent to reprove King David for a grave sin and to predict to him as future the evils which were to ensue.

Haec atque huius modi siue publice, id est pro salute uel utilitate populi, siue priuatim, cum pro suis quisque rebus diuina promereretur eloquia, quibus pro usu temporalis uitae futuri aliquid nosceretur, ad terrenam ciuitatem pertinuisse quis ambigat? Vbi autem legitur: Ecce dies ueniunt, dicit Dominus, et consummabo domui Israel et domui Iuda testamentum nouum, non secundum testamentum, quod disposui patribus eorum in die, qua adprehendi manum eorum, ut educerem eos de terra Aegypti, quoniam ipsi non permanserunt in testamento meo, et ego neglexi eos, dicit Dominus. Quia hoc est testamentum, quod constituam domui Israel post dies illos, dicit Dominus, dando leges meas in mentem eorum et super corda eorum scribam eas, et uidebo eos, et ero illis in Deum, et ipsi erunt mihi in plebem: Hierusalem sine dubio superna prophetatur, cuius Deus ipse praemium est, eumque habere atque ipsius esse summum ibi est atque totum bonum.

These and things of this kind, whether publicly, that is, for the salvation or utility of the people, or privately, when each one would merit divine oracles on behalf of his own affairs, by which something of the future would be known for the use of temporal life—who would doubt that they pertained to the earthly city? But where it is read: Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, and I will consummate for the house of Israel and the house of Judah a new testament, not according to the testament which I disposed for their fathers on the day when I took their hand, that I might lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they did not remain in my testament, and I neglected them, says the Lord. For this is the testament which I will constitute for the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord, by giving my laws into their mind and upon their hearts I will write them, and I will look upon them, and I will be to them for God, and they shall be to me for a people: Jerusalem without doubt the heavenly is prophesied, whose God himself is the reward, and to have him and to belong to him is there the highest and the whole good.

Ad utramque uero pertinet hoc ipsum, quod Hierusalem dicitur Dei ciuitas, et in ea prophetatur futura domus Dei, eaque prophetia uidetur impleri, cum Salomon rex aedificat illud nobilissimum templum. Haec enim et in terrena Hierusalem secundum historiam contigerunt, et caelestis Hierusalem figurae fuerunt. Quod genus prophetiae ex utroque ueluti compactum atque commixtum in libris ueteribus canonicis, quibus rerum gestarum narrationes continentur, ualet plurimum multumque exercuit et exercet ingenia scrutantium litteras sacras, ut, quod historice praedictum completumque legitur in semine Abrahae secundum carnem, etiam in semine Abrahae secundum fidem quid implendum allegorice significet inquiratur; in tantum ut quibusdam uisum sit nihil esse in eisdem libris uel praenuntiatum et effectum, uel effectum, quamuis non praenuntiatum, quod non insinuet aliquid ad supernam ciuitatem Dei eiusque filios in hac uita peregrinos figurata significatione referendum.

To both, however, pertains this very thing: that Jerusalem is called the city of God, and that in it the future house of God is prophesied, and that prophecy seems to be fulfilled when King Solomon builds that most noble temple. For these things both befell in the earthly Jerusalem according to history, and were figures of the heavenly Jerusalem. This kind of prophecy, as it were compacted and commixed from both, in the ancient canonical books in which the narratives of deeds are contained, avails very greatly and has very much exercised and does exercise the talents of those scrutinizing the sacred letters, so that, what is read as historically foretold and completed in the seed of Abraham according to the flesh, there is also inquiry what it signifies allegorically to be fulfilled in the seed of Abraham according to faith; to such an extent that it has seemed to some that there is nothing in those same books either preannounced and effected, or effected, although not preannounced, which does not insinuate something, by figured signification, to be referred to the supernal city of God and to His sons, pilgrims in this life.

Sed si hoc ita est, iam bipertita, non tripertita erunt eloquia prophetarum, uel potius illarum scripturarum omnium, quae ueteris instrumenti appellatione censentur. Nihil enim erit illic, quod ad Hierusalem terrenam tantum pertineat, si, quidquid ibi de illa uel propter illam dicitur atque completur, significat aliquid, quod etiam ad Hierusalem caelestem allegorica praefiguratione referatur; sed erunt sola duo genera, unum quod ad Hierusalem liberam, alterum quod ad utram-¡que pertineat. Mihi autem sicut multum uidentur errare, qui nullas res gestas in eo genere litterarum aliquid aliud praeter id, quod eo modo gestae sunt, significare arbitrantur, ita multum audere, qui prorsus ibi omnia significationibus allegoricis inuoluta esse contendunt.

But if this is so, already the oracles of the prophets—or rather of all those scriptures which are held under the appellation of the Old Testament—will be twofold, not threefold. For there will be nothing there that pertains only to the earthly Jerusalem, if whatever is there said about her or on account of her and fulfilled signifies something that by allegorical prefiguration is also to be referred to the celestial Jerusalem; but there will be only two genera: one that pertains to the free Jerusalem, the other that pertains to both. To me, however, just as those seem greatly to err who think that no historical deeds in that genus of writings signify anything other than what was done in that mode, so those seem to dare much who contend that absolutely everything there is enwrapped in allegoric significations.

Ideo tripertita, non bipertita esse dixi. Hoc enim existimo, non tamen culpans eos, qui potuerint illic de quacumque re gesta sensum intellegentiae spiritalis exsculpere, seruata dumtaxat primitus historiae ueritate. Ceterum quae ita dicuntur, ut rebus humanitus seu diuinitus gestis siue gerendis conuenire non possint, quis fidelis dubitet non esse inaniter dicta?

Therefore I said they are tripartite, not bipartite. For this I reckon, yet not blaming those who have been able there to chisel out from any deed whatever a sense of spiritual intellection, provided only that the truth of the history is preserved first. Moreover, as for things that are spoken in such a way that they cannot be made to agree with matters done or to be done, whether humanly or divinely, what faithful person would doubt that they are not said in vain?

Quis ea non ad intellegentiam spiritalem reuocet, si possit, aut ab eo qui potest reuocanda esse fateatur?

Who would not bring these back to spiritual intelligence, if he can, or admit, from one who can, that they ought to be brought back?

[IV] Procursus igitur ciuitatis Dei ubi peruenit ad regum tempora, quando Dauid Saule reprobato ita regnum primus obtinuit, ut eius deinde posteri in terrena Hierusalem diuturna successione regnarent, dedit figuram, re gesta significans atque praenuntians, quod non est praetereundum silentio, de rerum mutatione futurarum, quod adtinet ad duo testamenta, uetus et nouum, ubi sacerdotium regnumque mutatum est per sacerdotem eundemque regem nouum ac sempiternum, qui est Christus Iesus. Nam et Heli sacerdote reprobato substitutus in Dei seruitium Samuel simul officium functus sacerdotis et iudicis, et Saule abiecto rex Dauid fundatus in regno hoc quod dico figurauerunt. Mater quoque ipsa Samuelis Anna, quae prius fuit sterilis et posteriore fecunditate laetata est, prophetare aliud non uidetur, cum gratulationem suam Domino fundit exultans, quando eundem puerum natum et ablactatum Deo reddit eadem pietate, qua uouerat.

[4] The course, then, of the City of God, when it came to the times of the kings—when David, Saul having been rejected, thus first obtained the kingdom that thereafter his descendants might reign in the earthly Jerusalem in a long succession—gave a figure, by the deed done both signifying and fore-announcing (which is not to be passed over in silence) the change of things to come, in what pertains to the two Testaments, Old and New, where the priesthood and the kingdom were changed through the priest and likewise king, new and sempiternal, who is Christ Jesus. For also, Eli the priest having been rejected, Samuel, substituted into the service of God, at once discharged the office of priest and judge; and Saul having been cast off, King David, established in the kingdom, prefigured this that I say. The mother of Samuel himself, Hannah, who formerly was barren and rejoiced in later fecundity, seems to prophesy nothing else, when, exulting, she pours out her thanksgiving to the Lord, when she returns the same boy, born and weaned, to God with the same piety with which she had vowed him.

Dicit enim: Confirmatum est cor meum in Domino, exaltatum est cornum meum in Deo meo. Dilatatum est super inimicos meos os meum, laetata sum in salutari tuo. Quoniam non est sanctus sicut Dominus, et non est iustus sicut Deus noster; non est sanctus praeter te. Nolite gloriari et nolite loqui excelsa, neque procedat magniloquium de ore uestro.

For she says: My heart has been confirmed in the Lord, my horn has been exalted in my God. My mouth has been dilated over my enemies; I rejoiced in your salvation. For there is none holy like the Lord, and there is none just like our God; there is none holy besides you. Do not boast and do not speak exalted things, nor let grandiloquence proceed from your mouth.

Quoniam Deus scientiarum Dominus, et Deus praeparans adinuentiones suas. Arcum potentium fecit infirmum, et infirmes praecincti sunt uirtutem; pleni panibus minorati sunt, et esurientes transierunt terram. Quia sterilis peperit septem, et multa in filiis infirmata est.

For the Lord is the God of sciences, and a God preparing his inventions. He has made the bow of the powerful weak, and the feeble have been girded with strength; those full of breads have been diminished, and the hungry have crossed the land. For the barren has borne seven, and she that was many in children has been enfeebled.

Dominus mortificat et uiuificat, deducit ad inferos et reducit. Dominus pauperes facit et ditat, humiliat et exaltat. Suscitat a terra pauperem et de stercore erigit inopem, ut conlocet eum cum potentibus populi, et sedem gloriae hereditatem dans eis; dans uotum uouenti, et benedixit annos iusti, quoniam non in uirtute potens est uir.

The Lord mortifies and vivifies, leads down to the underworld and brings back. The Lord makes poor and enriches, humbles and exalts. He raises the poor from the earth and lifts the needy from the dunghill, that he may place him with the potent ones of the people, and, giving them the seat of glory as an inheritance; granting the vow to the one who vows, and he blessed the years of the just man, since not in strength is a man potent.

Dominus infirmum faciet aduersarium suum, Dominus sanctus. Non glorietur prudens in prudentia sua, et non glorietur potens in potentia sua, et non glorietur diues in diuitiis suis. sed in hoc glorietur, qui gloriatur, intellegere et scire Dominum et facere iudicium et iustitiam in medio terrae.

The Lord will make his adversary weak, the Holy Lord. Let not the prudent boast in his prudence, and let not the potent boast in his power, and let not the rich man boast in his riches; but in this let him boast who boasts: to understand and to know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth.

Dominus ascendit in caelos et tonuit, ipse iudicabit extrema terrae, quia iustus est; et dat uirtutem regibus nostris, et exaltabit cornum christi sui.

The Lord ascended into the heavens and thundered, he himself will judge the extremities of the earth, because he is just; and he gives might to our kings, and he will exalt the horn of his christ.

Itane uero uerba haec unius putabuntur esse mulierculae, de nato sibi filio gratulantis? Tantumne mens hominum a luce ueritatis auersa est, ut non sentiat supergredi modum feminae huius dicta quae fudit? Porro qui rebus ipsis, quae iam coeperunt etiam in hac terrena peregrinatione compleri, conuenienter mouetur, nonne intendit et aspicit et agnoscit per hanc mulierem, cuius etiam nomen, id est Anna, gratia eius interpretatur, ipsam religionem Christianam, ipsam ciuitatem Dei, cuius rex est et conditor Christus, ipsam postremo Dei gratiam prophetico spiritu sic locutam, a qua superbi alienantur, ut cadant, qua humiles implentur, ut surgant, quod maxime hymnus iste personuit?

Is it indeed to be thought that these words are those of a single little woman, congratulating herself on a son born to her? Is the mind of men so turned away from the light of truth as not to feel that the sayings which this woman poured forth exceed the measure of a woman? Moreover, whoever is suitably moved by the very facts which have already begun, even in this earthly peregrination, to be fulfilled, does he not direct his attention and behold and recognize, through this woman—whose very name, that is, Anna, is interpreted His grace—the very Christian religion, the very City of God, whose King and Founder is Christ, and, finally, the very grace of God thus speaking by the prophetic spirit, from which the proud are alienated, that they may fall, and by which the humble are filled, that they may rise—this which most of all this hymn has made resound?

Nisi quisquam forte dicturus est nihil istam prophetasse mulierem, sed Deum tantummodo propter filium, quem precata inpetrauit, exultanti praedicatione laudasse. Quid ergo sibi uult quod ait: Arcum potentium fecit infirmum, et infirmi praecincti sunt uirtute; pleni panibus minorati sunt, et esurientes transierunt terram. quia sterilis peperit septem, et multa in filiis infirmata est?

Unless perhaps someone will say that this woman prophesied nothing, but only praised God with exultant proclamation on account of the son whom she asked for and obtained by prayer. What then does she mean when she says: He made the bow of the mighty weak, and the weak have been girded with virtue; those full of bread have been diminished, and the hungry have passed over the land. because the barren has borne seven, and she that was many in children has been enfeebled?

Numquid septem ipsa pepererat, quamuis sterilis fuerit? Vnicum habebat, quando ista dicebat; sed nec postea septem peperit, siue sex, quibus septimus esset ipse Samuel, sed tres mares et duas feminas. Deinde in illo populo cum adhuc nemo regnaret, quod in extremo posuit: Dat uirtutem regibus nostris, et exaltabit cornum christi sui, unde dicebat, si non prophetabat?

Had she herself borne seven, although she had been barren? She had an only one when she said these things; but not even afterwards did she bear seven, or six, of whom the seventh would be Samuel himself, but three males and two females. Then, in that people, when as yet no one was reigning, that which she set at the end: “He gives strength to our kings, and he will exalt the horn of his christ”—whence was she saying it, if she was not prophesying?

Dicat ergo ecclesia Christi, ciuitas regis magni, gratia plena, prole fecunda. dicat quod tanto ante de se prophetatum per os huius piae matris agnoscit: Confirmatum est cor meum in Domino, exaltatum est cornum meum in Deo meo. Vere confirmatum cor et cornu uere exaltatum, quia non in se, sed in Domino Deo suo.

Let the church of Christ, the city of the great king, full of grace, fruitful in offspring, speak. let her say what she recognizes to have been prophesied long before concerning herself through the mouth of this pious mother: My heart has been confirmed in the Lord, my horn has been exalted in my God. Truly a heart confirmed and a horn truly exalted, because not in itself, but in the Lord her God.

Dilatatum est super inimicos meos os meum. quia et in angustiis pressurarum sermo Dei non est adligatus nec In praeconibus adligatis. Laetata sum, inquit, in salutari tuo.

My mouth has been widened over my enemies. because even in the straits of pressures the word of God is not bound, nor In bound heralds. “I rejoiced,” she says, “in your salvation.”

Christus est iste Iesus, quem Simeon, sicut in euangelio legitur, senex amplectens paruum, agnoscens magnum: Nunc, inquit, dimittis, Domine, seruum tuum in pace, quoniam uiderunt oculi mei salutare tuum. Dicat itaque ecclesia: Laetata sum in salutari tuo; quoniam non est sanctus, sicut Dominus, et non est iustus, sicut Deus noster; tamquam sanctus et sanctificans, iustus et iustificans. Non est sanctus praeter te, quia nemo fit nisi abs te. Denique sequitur: Nolite gloriari et nolite loqui excelsa, neque exeat magniloquium de ore uestro; quoniam Deus scientiarum Dominus.

Christ is this Jesus, whom Simeon, as is read in the Gospel, the old man, embracing as a little one, recognizing as great, said: Now you dismiss, Lord, your servant in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation. Let the Church, therefore, say: I rejoiced in your salvation; for there is none holy like the Lord, and none just like our God; as holy and sanctifying, just and justifying. There is no holy one besides you, because no one becomes so except from you. Finally, it follows: Do not glory and do not speak exalted things, nor let grandiloquence go forth from your mouth; for God is the Lord of sciences.

Ipse uos scit, et ubi nemo scit; quoniam qui putat se aliquid esse, cum nihil sit, se ipsum seducit. Haec dicuntur aduersariis ciuitatis Dei ad Babyloniam pertinentibus, de sua uirtute praesumentibus, in se, non in Domino gloriantibus; ex quibus sunt etiam camales Israelitae, terrenae Hierusalem ciues terrigenae, qui ut dicit apostolus, ignorantes Dei iustitiam (id est, quam dat homini Deus, qui solus est iustus atque iustificans) et suam uolentes constituere (id est uelut a se sibi partam, non ab illo inpertitam) iustitiae Dei non sunt subiecti, utique quia superbi, de suo putantes, non de Dei, posse placere se Deo, qui est Deus scientiarum atque ideo et arbiter conscientiarum, ibi uidens cogitationes hominum, quoniam uanae sunt, si hominum sunt et ab illo non sunt. Et praeparans, inquit, adinuentiones suas.

He himself knows you, and where no one knows; for he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself. These things are said to the adversaries of the City of God who pertain to Babylon, presuming upon their own virtue, glorying in themselves, not in the Lord; among whom are also the carnal Israelites, earth-born citizens of the earthly Jerusalem, who, as the Apostle says, being ignorant of the justice of God (that is, the justice which God gives to man, who alone is just and justifying) and willing to establish their own (that is, as if gotten by themselves for themselves, not imparted by Him), are not subject to the justice of God, to wit, because they are proud, thinking that by what is theirs, not by what is God’s, they can please God, who is the God of knowledges and therefore also the arbiter of consciences, seeing there the thoughts of men, since they are vain, if they are men’s and are not from Him. And preparing, he says, his devisings.

Quas adinuentiones putamus, nisi ut superbi cadant et humiles surgant? Has quippe adinuentiones exequitur dicens: Arcus potentium infirmatus est, et infirmi praecincti sunt uirtute. Infirmatus est arcus, id est intentio eorum, qui tam po,tentes sibi uidentur, ut sine Dei dono atque adiutorio humana sufficientia diuina possint implere mandata, et praecinguntur uirtute, quorum interna uox est: Miserere mei, Domine, quoniam infirmus sum.

What contrivances do we suppose, except that the proud may fall and the humble may rise? He indeed carries out these contrivances, saying: “The bow of the powerful has been weakened, and the weak have been girded with strength.” The bow has been weakened, that is, the intention of those who seem so powerful to themselves that, without God’s gift and aid, human sufficiency can fulfill the divine mandates; and they are girded with strength whose inner voice is: “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am weak.”

Pleni panibus, inquit, minorati sunt, et esurientes transierunt terram. Qui sunt intellegendi pleni panibus, nisi idem ipsi quasi potentes, id est Israelitae, quibus credita sunt eloquia Dei? Sed in eo populo ancillae filii minorati sunt (quo uerbo minus quidem Latine, bene tamen expressum est, quod ex maioribus minores facti sunt), quia et in ipsis panibus, id est diuinis eloquiis, quae Israelitae soli tunc ex omnibus gentibus acceperunt, terrena sapiunt.

Full of loaves, he says, have been diminished, and the hungry have traversed the land. Who are to be understood as full of loaves, if not those very same as if potent, that is, the Israelites, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted? But in that people the sons of the handmaid have been diminished (by which word, indeed less Latinly, yet it is well expressed, that from being greater they have been made lesser), because even in the loaves themselves, that is, the divine oracles, which the Israelites alone then received out of all the nations, they savor earthly things.

Gentes autem, quibus lex illa non erat data. postea quam per nouum testamentum ad eloquia illa uenerunt, multum esuriendo terram transierunt, quia in eis non terrena, sed caelestia sapuerunt. Et hoc uelut quaereretur causa cur factum sit: Quia sterilis, inquit, peperit septem, et multa in filiis infirmata est.

But the Gentiles, to whom that law had not been given, after they came to those oracles through the New Testament, by much hungering passed over the land, because in them they savored not terrestrial but celestial things. And this, as if the cause were being asked why it was done: “Because,” he says, “the barren has borne seven, and she who had many children has been weakened.”

Hic totum quod prophetabatur eluxit agnoscentibus numerum septenarium, quo est uniuersae ecclesiae significata perfectio. Propter quod et Iohannes apostolus ad septem scribit ecclesias, eo modo se ostendens ad unius plenitudinem scribere; et in prouerbiis Salomonis hoc antea praefigurans Sapientia aedificauit sibi domum et suffulsit columnas septem. Sterilis enim erat in omnibus gentibus Dei ciuitas, antequam iste fetus, quem cernimus, oreretur.

Here the whole of what was being prophesied shone forth for those recognizing the septenary number, by which the perfection of the universal Church is signified. For which reason also the apostle John writes to seven churches, in that way showing himself to write to the plenitude of one; and prefiguring this beforehand in the Proverbs of Solomon: Wisdom has built herself a house and has propped seven columns. For barren was the City of God among all the nations, before this offspring, which we behold, should arise.

Cernimus etiam, quae multa in filiis erat, nunc infirmatam Hierusalem terrenam; quoniam quicumque filii liberae in ea erant, uirtus eius erant; nunc uero ibi quoniam littera est et spiritus non est, amissa uirtute infirmata est.

We also discern the earthly Jerusalem, which was abundant in sons, now enfeebled; for whoever were the sons of the free woman in it were its virtue; but now there, since there is letter and there is not spirit, with virtue lost it has been weakened.

Dominus mortificat et uiuificat; mortificauit illam, quae multa erat in filiis, et uiuificauit hanc sterilem, quae peperit septem. Quamuis commodius possit intellegi eosdem uiuificare, quos mortificauerit. Id enim uelut repetiuit addendo: Deducit ad inferos et reducit.

The Lord mortifies and vivifies; he mortified that one which was many in sons, and vivified this sterile one, which has borne seven. Although it can more commodiously be understood that he vivifies the same whom he has mortified. For he, as it were, repeated that by adding: He leads down to the infernal regions and leads back.

Quibus enim dicit apostolus: Si mortui estis cum Christo, quae sursum sunt quaerite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens, salubriter utique mortificantur a Domino; quibus adiungit: Quae sursum sunt sapite, non quae super terram; ut ipsi sint illi, qui esurientes transierunt terram. Mortui enim estis, inquit; ecce quo modo salubriter mortificat Deus; deinde sequitur: Et uita uestra abscondita est cum Christo in Deo; ecce quo modo eosdem ipsos uiuificat Deus. Sed numquid eosdem deduxit ad inferos et reduxit?

To whom the apostle says: If you have died with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God, they are assuredly mortified salubriously by the Lord; to whom he adds: Savor the things that are above, not the things upon the earth; so that they themselves may be those who, hungering, have passed over the earth. For you have died, he says; behold in what manner God salubriously mortifies; then it follows: And your life has been hidden with Christ in God; behold in what manner God vivifies those very same. But did he lead those same down to the lower regions and bring them back?

Hoc utrumque sine controuersia fidelium in illo potius uidemus impletum, capite scilicet nostro, cum quo uitam nostram in Deo apostolus dixit absconditam. Nam qui proprio filio non pepercit, sed pro nobis omnibus tradidit eum, isto modo utique mortificauit eum; et quia resuscitauit a mortuis, eundum rursus uiuificauit. Et quia in prophetia uox eius agnoscitur: Non derelinques animam meam in inferno, eundem deduxit ad inferos et reduxit.

This both, without controversy among the faithful, we see rather fulfilled in that One, namely in our Head, with whom the apostle said our life is hidden in God. For he who did not spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, in this way assuredly mortified him; and because he raised him from the dead, he the same vivified again. And because in the prophecy his voice is recognized: “You will not abandon my soul in hell,” the same one he led down to the infernal regions and brought back.

Hac eius paupertate ditati sumus. Dominus enim pauperes facit et ditat. Nam quid hoc sit ut sciamus, quod sequitur audiamus: Humiliat et exaltat; utique superbos humiliat et humiles exaltat.

By this his poverty we have been enriched. For the Lord makes poor and enriches. For, in order that we may know what this is, let us hear what follows: he humbles and exalts; assuredly he humbles the proud and exalts the humble.

Quod enim alibi legitur: Deus superbis resistit, humilibus autem dat gratiam, hoc totus habet sermo huius, cuius nomen interpretatur gratia eius.

For that which is read elsewhere: “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” this the entire sermon of this one contains, whose name is interpreted “his grace.”

Iam uero quod adiungitur: suscitat a terra pauperem, de nullo melius quam de illo intellego, qui propter nos pauper factus est, cum diues esset, ut eius paupertate, sicut paulo ante dictum est, ditaremur. Ipsum enim de terra suscitauit tam cito, ut caro eius non uideret corruptionem. Nec illud ab illo alienabo, quod additum est: Et de stercore erigit inopem.

Now indeed as to what is subjoined: “he raises the poor from the earth,” I understand it of none better than of him who for our sake became poor, although he was rich, that by his poverty, as was said a little before, we might be enriched. For him he raised from the earth so quickly that his flesh did not see corruption. Nor will I alienate from him that which has been added: “And from the dungheap he lifts up the needy.”

Inops quippe idem, qui pauper; stercus uero, unde erectus est, rectissime intelleguntur persecutores Iudaei, in quorum numero cum se dixisset apostolus ecclesiam persecutum: Quae mihi fuerunt, inquit, lucra, haec propter Christum damna esse duxi; nec solum detrimenta, uerum etiam stercora existimaui esse, ut Christum lucri facerem. De terra ergo suscitatus est ille supra omnes diuites pauper, et de illo stercore erectus est supra omnes opulentos ille inops ut sedeat cum potentibus populi, quibus ait: Sedebitis super duodecim sedes. —- Et sedem gloriae hereditatem dans eis; dixerant enim potentes illi: Ecce nos dimisimus omnia et secuti sumus te. Hoc uotum potentissime uouerant.

For the indigent, indeed, is the same as the pauper; and the dung, from which he was raised up, is most rightly understood as the Jewish persecutors, in whose number, when the Apostle said that he had persecuted the church, “What things were gains to me,” he says, “these I have deemed losses for Christ; and not only losses, but I have reckoned them even as dung, that I might make Christ my gain.” From the earth, therefore, that pauper above all rich men was raised, and from that dung that indigent one was lifted up above all the opulent, so that he might sit with the powerful of the people, to whom he says: “You will sit upon twelve seats.” —- And giving to them the seat of glory as an inheritance; for those powerful ones had said: “Behold, we have left all things and have followed you.” This vow they had most powerfully vowed.

Sed unde hoc eis, nisi ab illo, de quo hic continuo dictum est: Dans uotum uouenti? Alioquin ex illis essent potentibus, quorum infirmatus est arcus. Dans, inquit, uotum uouenti.

But whence is this to them, unless from him, of whom it is straightway said here: “Giving a vow to the one vowing”? Otherwise they would be of those powerful ones whose bow has been enfeebled. “Giving,” he says, “a vow to the one vowing.”

Non enim Domino quisquam quicquam rectum uoueret, nisi qui ab illo acciperet quod uoueret. Sequitur: Et benedixit annos iusti, ut cum illo scilicet sine fine uiuat, cui dictum est: Et anni tui non deficient. Ibi enim stant anni, hic autem transeunt, immo pereunt; antequam ueniant enim, non sunt; cum autem uenerint, non erunt, quia cum suo fine ueniunt.

For indeed no one would vow anything upright to the Lord, unless he received from him what he would vow. It follows: And he blessed the years of the just man, namely that he may live with him without end, to whom it was said: And your years shall not fail. For there the years stand, but here they pass—nay rather, they perish; before they come, indeed, they are not; and when they shall have come, they will not be, because they come with their own end.

Horum autem duorum, id est dans uotum uouenti, et benedixit annos iusti, unum est quod facimus, alterum quod sumimus. Sed hoc alterum Deo largitore non sumitur, nisi cum ipso adiutore primum illud efficitur: Quia non in uirtute potens est uir. Dominus infirmum faciet aduersarium eius; illum scilicet, qui homini uouenti inuidet et resistit, ne ualeat implere quod uouit.

But of these two—namely, “giving a vow to the one vowing,” and “he blessed the years of the just man”—one is what we do, the other what we take. Yet this latter is not taken without God as Bestower, unless, with Him Himself as Helper, the former is first effected: Because not in virtue is a man powerful. The Lord will make his adversary weak—namely him who envies and resists the man who is vowing, lest he be able to fulfill what he vowed.

Potest ex ambiguo Graeco intellegi et aduersarium suum. Cum enim Dominus possidere nos coeperit, profecto aduersarius, qui noster fuerat, ipsius fit et uincetur a nobis, sed non uiribus nostris, quia non in uirtute potens est uir. Dominus ergo infirmum faciet aduersarium suum, Dominus sanctus; ut uincatur a sanctis, quos Dominus sanctus sanctorum efficit sanctos.

It can, from the ambiguous Greek, be understood also as “his adversary.” For when the Lord begins to possess us, surely the adversary who had been ours becomes his, and will be conquered by us—but not by our forces, because not in virtue is man potent. Therefore the Lord will make his adversary weak, the Holy Lord; so that he may be conquered by the saints, whom the Holy Lord of saints makes holy.

Ac per hoc non glorietur prudens in sua prudentia, et non glorietur potens in sua potentia, et non glorietur diues in diuitiis suis; sed in hoc glorietur, qui gloriatur, intellegere et scire Dominum et facere iudicium et iustitiam in medio terrae. Non parua ex parte intellegit et scit Dominum, qui intellegit et scit etiam hoc a Domino sibi dari, ut intellegat et sciat Dominum. Quid enim habes, ait apostolus, quod non accepisti?

And therefore let not the prudent glory in his own prudence, and let not the powerful glory in his own power, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but in this let him glory who glories: to understand and to know the Lord, and to do judgment and justice in the midst of the earth. Not in a small part does he understand and know the Lord, who understands and knows also this, that from the Lord it is given to himself, that he may understand and know the Lord. For what do you have, says the apostle, that you have not received?

Si autem et accepisti, quid gloriaris, quasi non acceperis? id est, quasi a te ipso tibi sit, unde gloriaris. Facit autem iudicium et iustitiam, qui recte uiuit.

But if you have received as well, why do you glory, as if you had not received? that is, as if it were from yourself for yourself, whence you glory. But he does judgment and justice, who lives rightly.

Recte autem uiuit, qui obtemperat praecipienti Deo; et finis praecepti, id est, ad quod refertur praeceptum, caritas est de corde puro et conscientia bona et fide non ficta. Porro ista caritas, sicut Iohannes apostolus testatur, ex Deo est. Facere igitur iudicium et iustitiam ex Deo est.

Rightly, however, lives he who obeys the commanding God; and the end of the precept—that is, that to which the precept is referred—is charity from a pure heart and a good conscience and an unfeigned faith. Moreover, this charity, as the apostle John testifies, is from God. To do judgment and justice, therefore, is from God.

Sed quid est: In medio terrae? Neque enim non debent facere iudicium et iustitiam qui habitant in extremis terrae. Quis hoc dixerit?

But what is: In the middle of the earth? For assuredly those who inhabit the extremes of the earth ought to do judgment and justice as well. Who would say this?

Cur ergo additum est: In medio terrae? Quod non si adderetur et tantummodo diceretur: Facere iudicium et iustitiam, magis hoc praeceptum ad utrosque homines pertineret, et mediterraneos et maritimos. Sed ne quisquam putaret post finem uitae, quae in hoc agitur corpore, superesse tempus iudicium iustitiamque faciendi, quam dum esset in carne non fecit, et sic diuinum euadi posse iudicium: in medio terrae mihi uidetur dictum "cum quisque uiuit in corpore". In hac quippe uita suam terram quisque circumfert, quam moriente homine recipit terra communis, resurgenti utique redditura.

Why, therefore, was it added: In the middle of the earth? For if this were not added and it were only said: To do judgment and justice, this precept would more pertain to both sorts of men, both the inland (mediterranean) and the maritime. But lest anyone should think that after the end of life, which is carried on in this body, there remains time for doing judgment and justice which, while he was in the flesh, he did not do, and thus that the divine judgment can be escaped: “in the middle of the earth” seems to me to have been said “when each one lives in the body.” For in this life each person carries around his own earth, which, when the man dies, the common earth receives, surely to render it back to the one rising again.

Proinde in medio terrae, id est, cum anima nostra isto terreno clauditur corpore, faciendum est iudicium atque iustitia, quod nobis prosit in posterum, quando recipit quisque secundum ea, quae per corpus gessit, siue bonum siue malum. Per corpus quippe ibi dixit apostolus per tempus, quo uixit in corpore. Neque enim si quis maligna mente atque impia cogitatione blasphemet neque id ullis membris corporis operetur, ideo non erit reus, quia id non motu corporis gessit,cum hoc per illud tempus gesserit, quo gessit et corpus.

Accordingly, in the midst of the earth—that is, when our soul is enclosed by this earthy body—judgment and justice must be done, which may profit us in the time to come, when each receives according to the things that he has done through the body, whether good or evil. For by “through the body” the Apostle there meant “during the time in which he lived in the body.” Nor, if anyone with a malignant mind and impious thought blasphemes and does not effect it by any members of the body, will he for that reason not be guilty, because he did not do it by a motion of the body, since he has done this during that time in which he also bore the body.

Isto modo congruenter intellegi potest etiam illud, quod in psalmo legitur: Deus autem rex noster ante saecula operatus est salutem in medio terrae; ut Dominus Iesus accipiatur Deus noster, qui est ante saecula, quia per ipsum facta sunt saecula, operatus salutem nostram in medio terrae, cum Verbum caro factum est et terreno habitauit in corpore.

In this way, that, too, can be fittingly understood which is read in the psalm: But God, our king, before the ages, has wrought salvation in the middle of the earth; so that the Lord Jesus may be taken as our God, who is before the ages, because through him the ages were made, having wrought our salvation in the middle of the earth, when the Word was made flesh and dwelt in a terrestrial body.

Deinde postea quam prophetatum est in his uerbis Annae, quo modo gloriari debeat, qui gloriatur, non in se utique, sed in Domino, propter retributionem, quae in die iudicii futura est: Dominus ascendit, inquit, in caelos et tonuit; ipse iudicabit extrema terrae, quia iustus est. Prorsus ordinem tenuit confessionis fidelium. Ascendit enim in caelum Dominus Christus, et inde uenturus est ad uiuos et mortuos iudicandos.

Then, after it was prophesied in these words of Anna how he ought to glory who glories—not in himself, to be sure, but in the Lord—on account of the retribution which is to be in the day of judgment: “The Lord has ascended into the heavens and thundered; he himself will judge the ends of the earth, because he is just.” He altogether kept the order of the confession of the faithful. For the Lord Christ ascended into heaven, and from there he is to come to judge the living and the dead.

Nam quis ascendit, sicut dicit apostolus, nisi qui et descendit in inferiores partes terrae? Qui descendit, ipse est et qui ascendit super omnes caelos, ut adimpleret omnia. Per nubes ergo suas tonuit, quas sancto Spiritu cum ascendisset impleuit.

For who ascended, as the apostle says, except the one who also descended into the inferior parts of the earth? He who descended, he himself is also the one who ascended above all the heavens, that he might fulfill all things. Therefore he thundered through his clouds, which he filled with the Holy Spirit when he had ascended.

De quibus ancillae Hierusalem, hoc est ingratae uineae, comminatus est apud Esaiam prophetam, ne pluant super eam imbrem. Sic autem dictum est: Ipse iudicabit extrema terrae, ac si diceretur: "Etiam extrema terrae." Non enim alias partes non iudicabit, qui omnes homines procul dubio iudicabit. Sed melius intelleguntur extrema terrae extrema hominis; quoniam non iudicabuntur, quae in melius uel in deterius medio tempore commutantur, sed in quibus extremis inuentus fuerit, qui iudicabitur.

Concerning which clouds, as the handmaids of Jerusalem, that is, of the ungrateful vineyard, he threatened through the prophet Isaiah that they should not rain a shower upon it. And thus it is said: He himself will judge the extremities of the earth, as if it were said: “Even the extremities of the earth.” For he will certainly not leave the other parts unjudged, he who will without doubt judge all human beings. But the extremities of the earth are better understood as the extremities of man; since those things will not be judged which are changed for the better or for the worse in the intervening time, but that in whose extremes he shall be found who is to be judged.

Propter quod dictum est: Qui perseuerauerit usque in finem, hic saluus erit. Qui ergo perseueranter facit iudicium et iustitiam in medio terrae, non damnabitur, cum iudicabuntur extrema terrae. Et dat, inquit, uirtutem regibus nostris; ut non eos iudicando condemnet.

On account of which it has been said: He who shall have persevered unto the end, this man will be saved. Therefore he who perseveringly does judgment and justice in the midst of the earth will not be condemned, when the extremes of the earth are judged. And, he says, he gives strength to our kings; so that by judging he may not condemn them.

Dat eis uirtutem, qua carnem sicut reges regant et in illo mundum, qui propter eos fudit sanguinem, uincant. Et exaltabit cornum christi sui. Quo modo Christus exaltabit cornum christi sui?

He gives to them virtue, by which they may rule the flesh like kings and, in him who poured out his blood for their sake, may conquer the world. And he will exalt the horn of his Christ. In what manner will Christ exalt the horn of his Christ?

De quo enim supra dictum est: Dominus ascendit in caelos, et intellectus est Dominus Christus: ipse, sicut hic dicitur, exaltabitt cornum christi sui. Quis ergo est christus Christi? An cornum exaltabit uniuscuiusque fidelis sui, sicut ista ipsa in principio huius hymni ait: Exaltatum est cornum meum in Deo meo?

Of whom indeed it was said above: “The Lord ascended into the heavens,” and it is understood to be the Lord Christ: he himself, as it is said here, will exalt the horn of his christ. Who then is the christ of Christ? Or will he exalt the horn of each one of his faithful, just as this very one at the beginning of this hymn says: “My horn has been exalted in my God?”

Omnes quippe unctos eius chrismate recte christos possumus dicere; quod tamen totum cum suo capite corpus unus est Christus. Haec Anna prophetauit, Samuelis mater, sancti uiri multumque laudati; in quo quidem tunc figurata est mutatio ueteris sacerdotii et nunc impleta, quando infirmata est quae multa erat in filiis, ut nouum haberet in Christo sacerdotium sterilis, quae peperit septem.

Indeed, all anointed by his chrism we can rightly call Christs; yet the whole body with its head is one Christ. This Hannah prophesied, the mother of Samuel, a holy and much-praised man; in whom indeed at that time the change of the old priesthood was prefigured and now fulfilled, when she who was many in sons has been weakened, so that the barren woman who bore seven might have in Christ a new priesthood.

[V] Sed hoc euidentius ad ipsum Heli sacerdotem missus loquitur homo Dei, cuius quidem nomen tacetur, sed intellegitur officio ministerioque suo sine dubitatione propheta. Sic enim scriptum est: Et uenit homo Dei ad Heli et dixit: Haec dicit Dominus: Reuelatus reuelatus sum ad domum patris tui, cum essent in terra Aegypti serui in domo Pharao; et elegi domum patris tui ex omnibus sceptris Israel mihi sacerdotio fungi,ut ascenderent ad altare meum et incenderent incensum et portarent Ephod; et dedi domui patris tui omnia, quae sunt ignis filiorum Israel, in escam. Et ut quid respexisti in incensum meum et in sacrificium meum inpudenti oculo et glorificasti filios tuos super me, benedicere primitias omnis sacrificii in Israel in conspectu meo?

[5] But this more evidently the man of God, sent to the priest Heli himself, speaks—whose name indeed is kept silent, but by his office and ministry he is understood without doubt to be a prophet. For thus it is written: And a man of God came to Heli and said: Thus says the Lord: I was revealed, I was revealed to the house of your father, when they were in the land of Egypt, slaves in the house of Pharaoh; and I chose the house of your father out of all the tribes of Israel to discharge the priesthood for me, that they might ascend to my altar and burn incense and carry the Ephod; and I gave to the house of your father all the things that are the fire-offerings of the sons of Israel, for food. And why did you look upon my incense and my sacrifice with an impudent eye, and glorified your sons above me, to bless the first-fruits of every sacrifice in Israel before my face?

Propter hoc haec dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Dixi: Domus tua et domus patris tui transibunt coram me usque in aeternum. Et nunc dicit Dominus: Nequaquam, sed glorificantes me glorificabo, et qui spernit me, spernetur. Ecce dies ueniunt, et exterminabo semen tuum et semen domus patris tui, et non erit tibi senior in domo mea omnibus diebus, et uirum exterminabo tibi ab altari meo, ut deficiant oculi eius et defluat anima eius; et omnis qui superauerit domus tuae, decident in gladio uirorum.

For this cause thus says the Lord God of Israel: I said, Your house and the house of your father shall pass before me unto eternity. And now the Lord says: By no means; but those who glorify me I will glorify, and he who spurns me shall be spurned. Behold, days are coming, and I will exterminate your seed and the seed of your father’s house, and there shall not be to you an elder in my house for all days; and I will exterminate for you a man from my altar, so that his eyes may fail and his soul may ebb away; and everyone who survives of your house shall fall by the sword of men.

Et hoc tibi signum, quod ueni et super duos filios tuos hos, Ophni et Phinees: una die morientur ambo. Et suscitabo mihi sacerdotem fidelem, qui omnia, quae in corde meo et quae in anima mea, faciat; et aedificabo ei domum fidelem, et transibit coram Christo meo omnibus diebus. Et erit, qui superauerit in domo tua, ueniet adorare ei obolo argenti dicens: lacta me in unam panem sacerdotii tui manducare panem.

And this for you is the sign, that shall come upon these your two sons, Ophni and Phinees: in one day both will die. And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and that is in my soul; and I will build for him a faithful house, and he shall pass before my Christ all the days. And it shall be, whoever survives in your house will come to adore him with a silver obol, saying: admit me into a single bread of your priesthood, to eat bread.

Non est ut dicatur ista prophetia, ubi sacerdotii ueteris tanta manifestatione praenuntiata mutatio est, in Samuele fuisse completa. (Quamquam enim non esset de alia tribu Samuel, quam quae constituta fuerat a Domino, ut seruiret altari, tamen non erat de filiis Aaron, cuius progenies fuerat deputata, unde fierent sacerdotes; ac per hoc in ea quoque re gesta eadem mutatio quae per Christum Iesum futura fuerat adumbrata est, et ad uetus testamentum proprie, figurate uero pertinebat ad nouum prophetia facti etiam ipsa, non uerbi, id scilicet facto significans, quod uerbo ad Heli sacerdotem dictum est per prophetam.) Nam fuerunt postea sacerdotes ex genere Aaron, sicut Sadoc et Abiathar, regnante Dauid, et alii deinceps, antequam tempus ueniret, quo ista, quae de sacerdotio mutando tanto ante praedicta sunt, effici per Christum oportebat. Quis autem nunc fideli oculo haec intuens non uideat esse completa?

It is not to be said that this prophecy, wherein the change of the old priesthood was pre-announced with so great a manifestation, was completed in Samuel. (For although Samuel was not of another tribe than that which had been appointed by the Lord to serve the altar, nevertheless he was not of the sons of Aaron, whose progeny had been deputed whence priests should be made; and through this, in that deed as well, the same change which was going to be through Christ Jesus was adumbrated, and it pertained properly to the Old Testament, but figuratively to the New—the prophecy of the deed itself, not of the word—signifying by the deed, namely, what was said by the word to Eli the priest through the prophet.) For there were afterwards priests from the stock of Aaron, such as Zadok and Abiathar, with David reigning, and others thereafter, before the time should come when those things which so long before were foretold about the priesthood being changed ought to be effected through Christ. But who now, beholding these things with a faithful eye, does not see that they have been completed?

Quando quidem nullum tabernaculum, nullum templum, nullum altare, nullum sacrificium et ideo nec ullus sacerdos remansit Iudaeis, quibus, ut de semine Aaron ordinaretur, in Dei fuerat lege mandatum. Quod et hic commemoratum est illo dicente propheta: Haec dicit Dominus Deus Israel: Dixi: Domus tua et domus patris tui transibunt coram me usque in aeternum. Et nunc dicit Dominus: Nequaquam, sed glorificantes me glorificabo, et qui me spernit, spernetur.

Since indeed no tabernacle, no temple, no altar, no sacrifice, and therefore no priest at all remained to the Jews, for whom it had been commanded in the law of God that one be ordained from the seed of Aaron. Which also is here commemorated, the prophet saying: Thus says the Lord God of Israel: I said: Your house and the house of your father shall pass before me unto eternity. And now, says the Lord: By no means; but those glorifying me I will glorify, and he who despises me shall be despised.

Quod enim nominat domum patris eius, non eum de proximo patre dicere, sed de illo Aaron, qui primus sacerdos est institutus, de cuius progenie ceteri sequerentur, superiora demonstrant, ubi ait: Reuelatus sum ad domum patris tui, cum essent in terra Aegypti serui in domo Pharao, et elegi domum patris tui ex omnibus sceptris Israel mihi sacerdotio fungi. Quis patrum fuit huius in illa Aegyptia seruitute, unde cum liberati essent, electus est ad sacerdotium, nisi Aaron? De huius ergo stirpe isto loco dixit futurum fuisse, ut non essent ulterius sacerdotes; quod iam uidemus impletum.

For when he names “his father’s house,” the preceding sentences show that he is not speaking of his immediate father, but of that Aaron who was first instituted as priest, from whose progeny the others were to follow, where he says: “I was revealed to your father’s house, when they were in the land of Egypt, slaves in the house of Pharaoh, and I chose your father’s house out of all the tribes of Israel to perform the priesthood for me.” Which of his fathers was in that Egyptian servitude, from which, when they had been freed, he was chosen to the priesthood, unless Aaron? Therefore of this one’s stock he said in this place that it would come to pass that there would no longer be priests; which we now see accomplished.

Vigilet fides, praesto sunt res, cernuntur, tenentur et uidere nolentium oculis ingeruntur. Ecce, inquit, dies ueniunt, et exterminabo semen tuum et semen domus patris tui, et non erit tibi senior in domo mea omnibus diebus, et uirum exterminabo tibi ab altari meo, ut deficiant oculi eius et defluat anima eius. Ecce dies, qui praenuntiati sunt, iam uenerunt.

Let faith keep watch; the realities are at hand, they are discerned, they are held, and they are thrust before the eyes of those unwilling to see. “Behold,” he says, “days are coming, and I will exterminate your seed and the seed of your father’s house, and there shall not be for you an elder in my house for all days, and I will exterminate for you from my altar a man, so that his eyes may fail and his soul may flow away.” Behold, the days that were pre-announced have already come.

Nullus sacerdos est secundum ordinem Aaron; et quicumque ex eius genere est homo, cum uidet sacrificium Christianorum toto orbe pollere, sibi autem honorem illum magnum esse subtractum, deficiunt oculi eius et defluit anima eius tabe maeroris.

There is no priest according to the order of Aaron; and whoever is a man of his lineage, when he sees the sacrifice of the Christians prevailing throughout the whole orb, but that for himself that great honor has been withdrawn, his eyes fail and his soul flows away with the wasting of grief.

Proprie autem ad huius domum Heli, cui haec dicebantur, quod sequitur pertinet: Et omnis qui superauerit domus tuae, decident in gladio uirorum. Et hoc tibi signum, quod ueniet super duos filios tuos hos, Ophni et Phinees: uno die morientur ambo. Hoc ergo signum factum est mutandi sacerdotii de domo huius, quo signo significatum est mutandum sacerdotium domus Aaron.

Properly, moreover, to the house of this Heli, to whom these things were being said, what follows pertains: And everyone who shall have survived of your house will fall by the sword of men. And this is the sign for you, which will come upon your two sons, these, Ophni and Phinees: in one day both will die. This sign, therefore, was made for the changing of the priesthood from this man’s house; by which sign it was signified that the priesthood of the house of Aaron is to be changed.

Mors quippe filiorum huius significauit mortem non hominum, sed ipsius sacerdotii de filiis Aaron. Quod autem sequitur, ad illum iam pertinet sacerdotem, cuius figuram gessit huic succedendo Samuel. Proinde quae sequuntur, de Christo Iesu noui testamenti uero sacerdote dicuntur: Et suscitabo mihi sacerdotem fidelem, qui omnia quae in corde meo et quae in anima mea faciat; et aedificabo ei domum fidelem.

Indeed the death of this man’s sons signified the death not of men, but of the priesthood itself from the sons of Aaron. But what follows now pertains to that priest, whose figure Samuel bore by succeeding to this man. Accordingly the things which follow are said about Christ Jesus, the true priest of the New Testament: And I will raise up for myself a faithful priest, who shall do all that is in my heart and that is in my soul; and I will build for him a faithful house.

Ipsa est aeterna et superna Hierusalem. Et transibit, inquit, coram Christo meo omnibus diebus. Transibit dixit "conuersabitur"; sicut superius dixerat de domo Aaron: Dixi: Domus tua et domus patris tui transibunt coram me in aeternum.

It is the eternal and supernal Jerusalem. And “it will pass,” he says, “before my Christ all the days.” He explained “it will pass” as “it will converse”; just as he had said above about the house of Aaron: I said: “Your house and your father’s house shall pass before me forever.”

Quod autem ait: Coram Christo meo transibit, de ipsa domo utique intellegendum est, non de illo sacerdote, qui est Christus ipse mediator atque saluator. Domus ergo eius coram illo transibit. Potest et transibit intellegi de morte ad uitam, omnibus diebus, quibus peragitur usque in finem saeculi huius ista mortalitas.

But as to what he says: He will pass before my Christ, it is certainly to be understood of the house itself, not of that priest who is Christ himself, the mediator and savior. Therefore his house will pass before him. And “he will pass” can also be understood as a passage from death to life, through all the days during which this mortality is carried on until the end of this age.

Quod autem ait Deus: Qui omnia quae in corde meo et quae in anima mea faciat: non arbitremur habere animam Deum, cum sit conditor animae; sed ita hoc de Deo tropice, non proprie dicitur, sicut manus et pes et alia corporis membra. Et ne secundum hoc credatur homo in carnis huius effigie factus ad imaginem Dei, adduntur et alae, quas utique non habet homo, et dicitur Deo: Sub umbra alarum tuarum proteges me; ut intellegant homines de illa ineffabili natura, non propriis, sed translatis rerum uocabulis ista dici. Quod uero adiungitur: Et erit, qui superauerit in domo tua, ueniet adorare eo, non proprie de domo dicitur huius Heli, sed illius Aaron, de qua usque ad aduentum Iesu Christi homines remanserunt, de quo genere etiam nunc usque non desunt.

But as for what God says: “Who will do all things that are in my heart and that are in my soul”: let us not suppose that God has a soul, since he is the creator of the soul; but this is said of God tropically, not properly, just as “hand” and “foot” and the other members of the body. And lest, on this account, it be believed that man, in the effigy of this flesh, was made to the image of God, wings also are added—which assuredly man does not have—and it is said to God: “Under the shadow of your wings you will protect me,” so that humans may understand that, concerning that ineffable nature, these things are said not with proper but with transferred names of things. And what is added: “And it shall be, whoever has survived in your house will come to worship there,” is not said properly of the house of this Eli, but of that of Aaron, from which men remained down to the advent of Jesus Christ, of which lineage even now there are not lacking.

Nam de illa domo huius Heli iam supra dictum erat: Et omnis qui superauerit domus tuae, decident in gladio uirorum. Quo modo ergo hic uere dici potuit: Et erit, qui superauerit in domo tua, ueniet adorare ei, si illud est uerum, quod ultore gladio nemo inde superarit? nisi quia illos intellegi uoluit, qui pertinent ad stirpem, sed illius totius sacerdotii secundum ordinem Aaron.

For about that house of this Eli it had already been said above: “And everyone who shall survive of your house will fall by the sword of men.” How then could it truly be said here: “And there will be one who survives in your house; he will come to worship him,” if that is true, that by the avenging sword no one from there has survived? except because he wished those to be understood who belong to the stock, yet of that whole sacerdotal order according to the order of Aaron.

Ergo si de illis est praedestinatis reliquiis, de quibus alius propheta dixit: Reliquiae saluae fient (unde et apostolus: Sic ergo, inquit, et in hoc tempore reliquiae per electionem gratiae factae sunt), quia de talibus reliquiis bene intellegitur esse, de quo dictum est: Qui superauerit in domo tuas profecto credit in Christum; sicut temporibus apostolorum ex ipsa gente plurimi crediderunt, neque nunc desunt, qui, licet rarissime, tamen credant; et impletur in eo quod hic iste homo Dei continuo secutus adiunxit: Veniet adorare ei obolo argenti. Cui ado re, nisi summo illi sacerdoti, qui et Deus est? Neque enim in illo sacerdotio secundum ordinem Aaron ad hoc ueniebant homines ad templum uel altare Dei, ut sacerdotem adorarent.

Therefore, if he is of those predestined remnants, of whom another prophet said: "The remnant shall be saved" (whence also the apostle: "Thus therefore," he says, "even in this time a remnant has been made by the election of grace"), because it is well understood to be of such remnants, of whom it was said: "Whoever survives in your house surely believes in Christ"; just as in the times of the apostles very many from that nation believed, nor are there lacking even now those who, although very rarely, yet believe; and it is fulfilled in that which this man of God straightway, following, added: "He will come to adore him with a silver obol." To whom ado re, if not to that supreme priest, who also is God? For in that priesthood according to the order of Aaron men did not come to the temple or the altar of God for this purpose, that they might adore the priest.

Quid est autem quod ait: Obolo argenti, nisi breuitate uerbi fidei, de quo commemorat apostolus dictum: Verbum consummans et breuians faciet Dominus super terram? Argentum autem pro eloquio poni psalmus testis est, ubi canitur: Eloquia Domini eloquia casta, argentum igne examinatum.

But what is it that he says: “with an obol of silver (argent),” if not the brevity of the word of faith, about which the apostle commemorates the saying: “The Lord will make upon the earth a word consummating and abbreviating”? Moreover, that silver is put for eloquence the psalm bears witness, where it is sung: “The utterances of the Lord are chaste utterances, silver tested by fire.”

Quid ergo dicit iste, qui uenit adorare sacerdoti Dei et sacerdoti Deo? Iacta me in partem sacerdotii tui, manducare panem. Nolo in patrum meorum conlocari honore, qui nullus est; iacta me in partem sacerdotii tui.

What, then, says this man, who comes to adore the priest of God and the priest who is God? Cast me into the share of your priesthood, to eat bread. I do not wish to be placed in the honor of my fathers, which is none; cast me into the share of your priesthood.

Elegi enim abiectus esse in domo Dei; qualecumque et quantulumcumque membrum esse cupio sacerdotii tui. Sacerdotium quippe hic ipsam plebem dicit, cuius plebis ille sacerdos est mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Iesus. Cui plebi dicit apostolus Petrus: Plebs sancta, regale sacerdotium.

For indeed I have chosen to be abject in the house of God; I desire to be, of whatever sort and however small, a member of your priesthood. For here by “priesthood” he calls the very plebs, of which plebs the Priest is the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. To which plebs the apostle Peter says: “Holy plebs, royal priesthood.”

Quamuis nonnulli "sacrificii tui" sint interpretati, non "sacerdotii tui"; quod nihilo minus eundem significat populum Christianum. Vnde dicit apostolus Paulus: Vnus panis, unum corpus multi sumus. Quod ergo addidit: Manducare panem, etiam ipsum sacrificii genus eleganter expressit, de quo dicit sacerdos ipse: Panis, quem ego dedero, caro mea est pro saeculi uita.

Although some have interpreted “of your sacrifice,” not “of your priesthood”; which nonetheless signifies the same Christian people. Whence the Apostle Paul says: “One bread, one body we many are.” Therefore, what he added, “to eat bread,” also elegantly expressed the very genus of the sacrifice, about which the priest himself says: “The bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world.”

Ipsum est sacrificium; non secundum ordinem Aaron, sed secundum ordinem Melchisedech, qui legit, intellegat. Breuis itaque ista confessio et salubriter humilis, qua dicitur: Iacta me in partem sacerdotii tui manducare panem; ipse est obolus argenti, quia et breue est et eloquium Domini est habitantis in corde credentis. Quia enim dixerat superius, dedisse se cibos domui Aaron de uictimis ueteris testamenti, ubi ait: Dedi domui patris tui omnia, quae sunt ignis filiorum Israel, in escam (haec quippe fuerant sacrificia Iudaeorum): ideo hic dixit: Manducare panem, quod est in nouo testamento sacrificium Christianorum.

This itself is the sacrifice; not according to the order of Aaron, but according to the order of Melchizedek—let the one who reads understand. Therefore this brief and healthfully humble confession, in which it is said: “Cast me into a share of your priesthood to eat bread”; this itself is a silver obol, because it is both brief and it is the utterance of the Lord dwelling in the heart of the believer. For since he had said above that he had given foods to the house of Aaron from the victims of the Old Testament, where he says: “I have given to the house of your father all the things that are the fire of the sons of Israel, for food” (for these were the sacrifices of the Jews): therefore here he said: “To eat bread,” which in the New Testament is the sacrifice of the Christians.

[VI] Cum igitur haec tanta tunc altitudine praenuntiata sint, tanta nunc manifestatione clarescant, non frustra tamen moueri quispiam potest ac dicere: Quo modo confidimus uenire omnia, quae in libris illis uentura praedicta sunt, si hoc ipsum, quod ibi diuinitus dictum est: Domus tua et domus patris tui transibunt coram me in aeternum, effectum habere non potuit? quoniam uidemus illud sacerdotium fuisse mutatum, et quod illi domui promissum est, nec sperari aliquando complendum, quia illud, quod ei reprobato mutatoque succedit, hoc potius praedicatur aeternum. Hoc qui dicit, nondum intellegit aut non recolit etiam ipsum secundum ordinem Aaron sacerdotium tamquam umbram futuri aeterni sacerdotii constitutum; ac per hoc, quando aeternitas ei promissa est, non ipsi umbrae ac figurae, sed ei, quod per ipsam adumbrabatur figurabaturque, promissum est.

[6] Since therefore these things were then foretold with such sublimity, and now shine forth with such manifestation, nevertheless someone can, not without reason, be moved and say: How do we confide that all the things which in those books were predicted as going to come will come, if this very thing which was there said by divine authority, Your house and the house of your father shall pass before me forever, could not have effect? since we see that priesthood was changed, and that what was promised to that house is not even to be hoped ever to be fulfilled, because that which, with it reprobated and changed, succeeds to it, this rather is proclaimed eternal. He who says this does not yet understand or does not recollect that even the priesthood itself according to the order of Aaron was constituted as a shadow of the future eternal priesthood; and therefore, when eternity was promised to it, it was promised not to the shadow and figure itself, but to that which through it was adumbrated and figured.

Sed ne putaretur ipsa umbra esse mansura, ideo etiam mutatio eius debuit prophetari.

But lest the shadow itself should be thought to be going to endure, therefore even its mutation had to be prophesied.

Regnum quoque isto modo etiam Saulis ipsius, qui certe reprobatus atque reiectus est, futuri regni erat umbra in aeternitate mansuri. Oleum quippe illud, quo unctus est et ab eo chrismate christus est dictus, mystice accipiendum et magnum sacramentum intellegendum est; quod in eo tantum ueneratus est ipse Dauid, ut percusso corde pauitauerit, quando in tenebroso occultatus antro, quo etiam Saul urgente intrauerat necessitate naturae, exiguam particulam uestis eius retrorsum latenter abscidit, ut haberet unde monstraret, quo modo ei pepercerit, cum posset occidere, atque ita suspicionem de animo eius, qua sanctum Dauid putans inimicum suum uehementer persequebatur, auferret. Ne itaque reus esset tanti sacramenti in Saule uiolati, quia uel indumentum eius sic adtrectauit, extimuit.

The kingdom also in this way—even that of Saul himself, who surely was reprobated and rejected—was a shadow of the kingdom to come, which would remain into eternity. For that oil with which he was anointed, and from which chrism he was called christ (that is, anointed), is to be taken mystically and understood as a great sacrament; which the blessed David himself so revered in him that, his heart smitten, he grew afraid, when, hidden in a dark cave—into which Saul too had entered, urged by the necessity of nature—he secretly cut off from behind a small piece of his garment, so that he might have something by which to show in what manner he had spared him when he could have killed him, and thus remove from his mind the suspicion by which, thinking holy David his enemy, he was vehemently pursuing him. Therefore, lest he be guilty of so great a sacrament violated in Saul, because he even handled his clothing thus, he feared exceedingly.

Ita enim scriptum est: Et percussit cor Dauid super eum, quia abstulit pinnulam chlamydis eius. Viris autem, qui cum illo erant et, ut Saulem in manus suas traditum interimeret, suadebant: Non mihi, inquit, contingat a Domino, si fecero hoc uerbum domino meo christo Domini, inferre manum meam super eum. quia christus Domini est hic.

For thus it is written: And David’s heart struck him over it, because he had taken away the little flap of his cloak. But to the men who were with him and were urging that, since Saul had been delivered into their hands, he should kill him, he said: “May it not befall me from the Lord, if I do this thing to my lord, the christ of the Lord, to lay my hand upon him; for this man is the christ of the Lord.”

Huic ergo umbrae futuri non propter ipsam, sed propter illud, quod praefigurabat, tanta ueneratio exhibebatur. Vnde et illud, quod ait Sauli Samuel: Quoniam non seruasti mandatum meum, quod mandauit tibi Dominus, quem ad modum nunc parauerat Dominus regnum tuum usque in aeternum super Israel: et nunc regnum tuum non stabit tibi, et quaeret Dominus sibi hominem secundum cor suum, et mandabit ei Dominus esse in principem super populum suum. quia non custodisti quae mandauit tibi Dominus, non sic accipiendum est, ac si ipsum Saulem Deus in aeternum praeparauerit regnaturum, et hoc postea noluerit seruare peccanti (neque enim eum peccaturum esse nesciebat); sed praeparauerat regnum eius, in quo figura regni esset aeterni.

To this shadow of the future, therefore, so great a veneration was exhibited, not on account of itself, but on account of that which it prefigured. Whence also that saying which Samuel speaks to Saul: “Because you have not kept my mandate which the Lord mandated to you, in the way the Lord had now prepared your kingdom forever over Israel; and now your kingdom shall not stand for you, and the Lord will seek for himself a man according to his heart, and the Lord will mandate him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept the things which the Lord mandated to you,” is not to be taken as though God had prepared Saul himself to reign unto eternity and afterwards had been unwilling to keep this for the sinner (for he was not ignorant that he would sin); but he had prepared his kingdom, in which there would be a figure of the eternal kingdom.

Ideo addidit: Et nunc regnum tuum non stabit tibi. Stetit ergo et stabit, quod in illo significatum est; sed non huic stabit, quia non in aeternum ipse fuerat regnaturus, nec progenies eius, ut saltem per posteros alterum alteri succedentes uideretur impleri quod dictum est: In aeternum. Et quaeret, inquit, Dominus sibi hominem; siue Dauid siue ipsum Mediatorem significans testamenti noui, qui figurabatur in chrismate etiam, quo unctus est ipse Dauid et progenies eius.

Therefore he added: And now your kingdom will not stand for you. Therefore what was signified in him has stood and will stand; but it will not stand for this man, because he himself was not going to reign unto eternity, nor his progeny, so that at least through descendants, one succeeding another, it might seem that what was said—Forever—was fulfilled. And, “The Lord will seek for himself a man,” he says; signifying either David, or the very Mediator of the New Testament, who also was prefigured in the chrism with which David himself and his progeny were anointed.

Non autem quasi nesciat ubi sit, ita sibi hominem Deus quaerit; sed per hominem more hominum loquitur, quia et sic loquendo nos quaerit. Non solum enim Deo Patri, uerum ipsi quoque Vnigenito eius, qui uenit quaerere quod perierat, usque adeo iam eramus noti, ut in ipso essemus electi ante constitutionem mundi. Quaeret sibi ergo dixit "suum habebit". Vnde in Latina lingua hoc uerbum accipit praepositionem et "adquirit" dicitur; quod satis apertum est quid significet.

But not as if He did not know where he is does God thus seek for Himself a man; rather He speaks through a man in the manner of men, because even by so speaking He seeks us. For not only to God the Father, but also to His Only-begotten Himself, who came to seek what had perished, we were already known to such a degree that in Him we were chosen before the foundation of the world. Therefore he said that “he will seek for himself” means “he will have his own.” Whence in the Latin language this verb takes a preposition and is said “adquirit,” that is, “acquires”; which is quite clear in what it signifies.

Quamquam et sine additamento praepositionis quaerere intellegatur adquirere; ex quo lucra uocantur et quaestus.

Although even without the addition of a preposition, to seek is understood as to acquire; whence profits are called lucre and quest.

[VII] Rursus peccauit Saul per inoboedientiam, et rursus Samuel in uerbo Domini ait illi: Quia spreuisti uerbum Domini, spreuit te Dominus, ut non sis rex super Israel. Et rursus pro eodem peccato, cum id confiteretur. Saul et ueniam precaretur rogaretque Samuelem, ut reuerteretur cum illo ad placandum Deum: Non reuertar, inquit, tecum; quia spreuisti uerbum Domini, et spernet te Dominus, ne sis rex super Israel.

[7] Again Saul sinned through disobedience, and again Samuel, in the word of the Lord, said to him: Because you have spurned the word of the Lord, the Lord has spurned you, that you may not be king over Israel. And again for the same sin, when he was confessing it. And Saul both was beseeching pardon and was asking Samuel to return with him to placate God: I will not return, he says, with you; because you have spurned the word of the Lord, and the Lord will spurn you, lest you be king over Israel.

Et conuertit Samuel faciem suam, ut abiret; et tenuit Saul pinnulam diploidis eius et disrupit eam. Et dixit ad eum Samuel: Disrupit Dominus regnum ab Israel de manu tua hodie et dabit proximo tuo bono super te, et diuidetur Israel in duo; et non conuertetur neque paenitebit eum; quoniam non est sicut homo, ut paeniteat eum; ipse minatur, et non permanet. Iste, cui dicitur: Spernet te Dominus, ne sis rex super Israel, et: Disrupit Dominus regnum ab Israel de manu tua hodie, quadraginta regnauit annos super Israel, tanto scilicet spatio temporis, quanto et ipse Dauid, et audiuit hoc primo tempore regni sui; ut intellegamus ideo dictum, quia nullus de stirpe eius fuerat regnaturus, et respiciamus ad stirpem Dauid, unde exortus est secundum carnem mediator Dei et hominum, homo Christus Iesus.

And Samuel turned his face, to go away; and Saul seized the little fringe of his double-cloak, and tore it. And Samuel said to him: The Lord has torn the kingdom from Israel out of your hand today and will give it to your neighbor, better than you, and Israel shall be divided into two; and he will not turn back nor repent; for he is not like a man, that he should repent; he himself threatens, and does not stand fast. This man, to whom it is said: The Lord will spurn you, lest you be king over Israel, and: The Lord has torn the kingdom from Israel out of your hand today, reigned forty years over Israel, namely for the same span of time as David himself; and he heard this at the first time of his reign; so that we may understand it was said for this reason, that none of his stock would be going to reign, and let us look to the stock of David, whence arose according to the flesh the mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Non autem habet scriptura, quod in plerisque latinis codicibus legitur: Disrupit Dominus regnum Israel de manu tua; sed sicut a nobis positum est inuentum in Graecis: Disrupit Dominus regnum ab Israel de manu tua; ut hoc intellegatur de manu tua, quod est ab Israel. Populi ergo Israel personam figurate gerebat homo iste, qui populus regnum fuerat amissurus, Christo Iesu Domino nostro per nouum testamentum non carnaliter, sed spiritaliter regnaturo. De quo cum dicitur: Et dabit illud proximo tuo, ad carnis cognationem id refertur; ex Israel enim Christus secundum carnem, unde et Saul.

Not, however, does Scripture have what is read in most Latin codices: Disrupit Dominus regnum Israel de manu tua; but as we have set it down, found in the Greek: Disrupit Dominus regnum ab Israel de manu tua; so that this may be understood of “from your hand,” namely, that it means “from Israel.” Therefore the man in question was figuratively bearing the persona of the people of Israel, which people was going to lose the kingdom, while Christ Jesus our Lord would reign through the New Testament not carnally but spiritually. And when it is said of him: Et dabit illud proximo tuo, this is referred to kinship of the flesh; for from Israel is Christ according to the flesh, whence also Saul.

Quod uero additum est: bono super te, potest quidem intellegi "meliori te"; nam et quidam sic sunt interpretati; sed melius sic accipitur bono super te, ut, quia ille bonus est, ideo sit super te, iuxta illud aliud propheticum: Donec ponam omnes inimicos tuos sub pedibus tuis; in quibus est et Israel, cui suo persecutori regnum abstulit Christus; quamuis fuerit illic et Israel, in quo dolus non erat, quoddam quasi frumentum illarum palearum; nam utique inde erant apostoli, inde tot martyres, quorum prior Stephanus; inde tot ecclesiae, quas apostolus Paulus commemorat, in conuersione eius magnificantes Deum.

But as to what has been added: “bono super te,” it can indeed be understood as “better than you”; for some have so interpreted; but it is better to take “bono super te” thus, that, because he is good, therefore he is over you, according to that other prophetic saying: “Until I put all your enemies under your feet”; among whom is Israel also, from whom—his own persecutor—Christ took away the kingdom; although there was there too an Israel in whom there was no guile, a kind of, as it were, grain among that chaff; for surely from there were the apostles, from there so many martyrs, the first of whom was Stephen; from there so many churches, which the apostle Paul commemorates, magnifying God at his conversion.

De qua re non dubito intellegendum esse quod sequitur: Et diuidetur Israel in duo; in Israel scilicet inimicum Christo et Israel adhaerentem Christo; in Israel ad ancillam et Israel ad liberam pertinentem. Nam ista duo genera primum simul erant, uelut Abraham adhuc adhaereret ancillae, donec sterilis per Christi gratiam fecundata clamaret: Eice ancillam et filium eius. Propter peccatum quidem Salomonis regnante filio eius Roboam scimus Israel in duo fuisse diuisum atque ita perseuerasse, habentibus singulis partibus reges suos, donec illa gens tota a Chaldaeis esset ingenti uastatione subuersa atque translata.

About this matter I do not doubt that what follows is to be understood: And Israel will be divided into two; namely into Israel hostile to Christ and Israel adhering to Christ; into Israel pertaining to the handmaid and Israel pertaining to the freewoman. For these two kinds were at first together, as when Abraham was still cleaving to the handmaid, until the barren woman, made fruitful through the grace of Christ, cried out: Cast out the handmaid and her son. Indeed, on account of the sin of Solomon, while his son Rehoboam was reigning, we know that Israel was divided into two and so persisted, each part having its own kings, until that nation as a whole was overthrown and carried off by the Chaldaeans with enormous devastation.

Sed hoc quid ad Saulem, cum, si tale aliquid comminandum esset, ipsi Dauid fuerit potius comminandum, cuius erat filius Salomon? Postremo nunc inter se gens Hebraea diuisa non est, sed indifferenter in eiusdem erroris societate dispersa per terras. Diuisio uero illa, quam Deus sub persona Saulis, illius regni et populi figuram gerentis, eidem regno populoque minatus est, aeterna atque inmutabilis significata est per hoc, quod a diunctum est: Et non conuertetur neque paenitebit eum; quoniam non est sicut homo, ut paeniteat eum; ipse minatur, et non permanet; id est, homo minatur, et non permanet; non autem Deus, quem non paenitet, sicut hominem.

But what has this to do with Saul, since, if something of this sort were to be threatened, it ought rather to be threatened to David himself, whose son was Solomon? Finally, the Hebrew nation is not now divided among themselves, but without distinction, dispersed through the lands in the fellowship of the same error. But that division which God, under the persona of Saul, the one bearing the figure of that kingdom and people, threatened to that same kingdom and people, was signified as eternal and immutable by this, that it was adjoined: “And he will not turn back nor repent; for he is not like a man, that he should repent.” “He threatens, and does not remain”—that is, a man threatens and does not remain; not, however, God, whom it does not repent, as it does a man.

Vbi enim legitur, quod paeniteat eum, mutatio rerum significatur, inmutabili praescientia manente diuina. Vbi ergo non paenitere dicitur, non mutare intellegitur.

For where it is read that it repents him, a mutation of things is signified, while the divine prescience remains immutable. Where therefore it is said not to repent, it is understood not to change.

Prorsus insolubilem uidemus per haec uerba prolatam diuinitus fuisse sententiam de ista diuisione populi Israel et omnino perpetuam. Quicumque enim ad Christum transierunt uel transeunt uel transibunt inde, non erant inde secundum Dei praescientiam, non secundum generis humani unam eandemque naturam. Prorsus quicumque ex Israelitis adhaerentes Christo perseuerant in illo, numquam erunt cum eis Israelitis, qui eius inimici usque in finem uitae huius esse persistunt; sed in diuisione, quae hic praenuntiata est, perpetuo permanebunt.

Altogether we see through these words that there was divinely pronounced a decree concerning that division of the people of Israel, indissoluble and absolutely perpetual. For whoever have crossed over to Christ, or cross over, or will cross over thence, were not thence according to God’s prescience, not according to the one and selfsame nature of the human race. Absolutely, whoever of the Israelites, adhering to Christ, persevere in him, will never be with those Israelites who persist in being his enemies unto the end of this life; but in the division which is here pre-announced, they will remain perpetually.

Nihil enim prodest testamentum uetus de monte Sina in seruitutem generans, nisi quia testimonium perhibet testamento nouo. Alioquin, quamdiu legitur Moyses, uelamen super corda eorum positum est; cum autem inde quisque transierit ad Christum, auferetur uelamen. Transeuntium quippe intentio ipsa mutatur de uetere ad nouum, ut iam non quisque intendat accipere carnalem, sed spiritalem felicitatem.

For the Old Testament from Mount Sinai, engendering into servitude, profits nothing, except that it bears testimony to the New Testament. Otherwise, as long as Moses is read, a veil is set upon their hearts; but when anyone passes over from there to Christ, the veil will be taken away. For the very intention of those passing over is changed from the old to the new, so that now one no longer aims to receive carnal, but spiritual felicity.

Propter quod ipse magnus propheta Samuel, antequam unxisset regem Saul, quando exclamauit ad Dominum pro Israel, et exaudiuit eum, et, cum offerret holocaustosim, accedentibus alienigenis ad pugnam contra populum Dei tonuit Dominus super eos, et confusi sunt et offenderunt coram Israel atque superati sunt: adsumpsit lapidem unum et statuit illum inter Massephat nouam et ueterem, et uocauit nomen eius Abennezer; quod est Latine lapis adiutoris, et dixit: Vsque hoc adiuuit nos Dominus. Massephat interpretatur intentio. Lapis ille adiutoris medietas est Saluatoris, per quem transeundum est a Massephat uetere ad nouam, id est ab intentione, qua expectabatur in carnali regno beatitudo falsa carnalis, ad intentionem, qua per nouum testamentum expectatur in regno caelorum beatitudo uerissima spiritalis; qua quoniam nihil est melius, huc usque adiuuat Deus.

On account of which the great prophet Samuel himself, before he had anointed King Saul, when he cried out to the Lord for Israel and He heard him, and, as he was offering a holocaust, with foreigners approaching to battle against the people of God, the Lord thundered upon them, and they were confounded and stumbled before Israel and were overcome: he took one stone and set it between the New and the Old Massephat, and he called its name Abennezer, which in Latin is “the stone of the helper,” and he said: Up to this point the Lord has helped us. Massephat is interpreted “intention.” That stone of the helper is the mediatorship of the Savior, through whom one must pass from the old Massephat to the new, that is, from the intention by which false carnal beatitude was expected in a carnal kingdom, to the intention by which, through the New Testament, the most true spiritual beatitude is expected in the kingdom of the heavens; than which nothing is better—up to this point God helps.

[VIII] Iam nunc uideo esse monstrandum, quid ipsi Dauid, qui Sauli successit in regnum, cuius mutatione finalis illa mutatio figurata est, propter quam diuinitus cuncta dicta, cuncta conscripta sunt, Deus promiserit, quod ad rem qua de agimus pertinet. Cum regi Dauid multa prospera prouenissent, cogitauit facere Deo domum, templum illud scilicet excellentissime diffamatum, quod a rege Salomone filio eius postea fabricatum est. Hoc eo cogitante factum est uerbum Domini ad Nathan prophetam, quod perferret ad regem.

[8] Now I see that it must be demonstrated what God promised to David himself, who succeeded Saul in the kingdom, in whose mutation that final mutation was figured, on account of which, by divine ordinance, all things were said, all things were written, as pertains to the matter which we are dealing with. When many prosperous things had come to pass for King David, he thought to make a house for God—namely that temple most excellently renowned, which afterward was constructed by King Solomon his son. While he was thinking this, the word of the Lord came to the prophet Nathan, for him to convey it to the king.

Vbi cum dixisset Deus, quod non ab ipso Dauid sibi aedificaretur domus, neque per tantum tempus se mandasse cuiquam in populo suo, ut sibi fieret domus cedrina: Et nunc, inquit, haec dices seruo meo Dauid: Haec dicit Dominus omnipotens: Accepi te de ouili ouium, ut esses in ducem super populum meum super Israel, et eram tecum in omnibus quibus ingrediebaris, et exterminaui omnes inimicos tuos a facie tua, et feci te nominatum secundum nomen magnorum, qui sunt super terram; et ponam locum populo meo Israel, et plantabo illum, et inhabitabit seorsum, et non sollicitus erit ultra; et non apponet filius iniquitatis humiliare eum, sicut ab initio a diebus, quibus constitui iudices super populum meum Israel; et requiem tibi dabo ab omnibus inimicis tuis, et nuntiabit tibi Dominus, quoniam domum aedificabis ipsi. Et erit, cum repleti fuerint dies tui, et dormies cum patribus tuis, et suscitabo semen tuum post te, qui erit de uentre tuo, et praeparabo regnum eius. Hic aedificabit mihi domum nomini meo, et dirigam thronum illius usque in aeternum.

Where, when God had said that a house would not be built for himself by David, nor that for so long a time had he commanded anyone in his people that a cedrine house be made for him: And now, he says, these things you shall say to my servant David: Thus says the Lord Almighty: I took you from the sheepfold of the sheep, that you might be for a leader over my people over Israel, and I was with you in all the ways in which you were going, and I exterminated all your enemies from before your face, and I made you renowned according to the name of the great ones who are upon the earth; and I will set a place for my people Israel, and I will plant him, and he shall dwell apart, and he shall not be anxious any longer; and the son of iniquity shall no more add to humble him, as from the beginning, from the days in which I set judges over my people Israel; and I will give you rest from all your enemies, and the Lord will announce to you that you will build a house for him. And it shall be, when your days shall have been fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, who shall be from your body, and I will prepare his kingdom. He shall build me a house for my name, and I will establish his throne unto eternity.

Ego ero illi in patrem, et ille erit mihi in filium. Et si uenerit iniquitas eius, redarguam illum in uirga uirorum et in tactibus filiorum hominum; misericordiam autem meam non amoueam ab eo, sicut amoui, a quibus amoui a facie mea; et fidelis erit domus eius et regnum eius usque in aeternum coram me, et thronus eius erit erectus usque in aeternum.

I will be to him as a father, and he will be to me as a son. And if his iniquity shall come, I will reprove him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men; but my mercy I will not remove from him, as I removed from those whom I removed from before my face; and his house shall be faithful and his kingdom unto eternity before me, and his throne shall be established unto eternity.

Hanc tam grandem promissionem qui putat in Salomone fuisse completam, multum errat. Adtendit enim quod dictum est: Hic aedificabit mihi domum, quoniam Salomon templum illud nobilissimum struxit, et non adtendit: Fidelis erit domus eius et regnum eius usque in aeternum coram me. Adtendat ergo et aspiciat Salomonis domum plenam mulieribus alienigenis colentibus deos falsos et ipsum ab eis regem aliquando sapientem in eandem idolatriam seductum atque deiectum; et non audeat existimare Deum uel hoc promisisse mendaciter uel talem Salomonem domumque eius futuram non potuisse praescire. Non hinc autem deberemus ambigere, nec si non in Christo Domino nostro, qui factus est ex semine Dauid secundum carnem, iam uideremus ista compleri, ne uane atque inaniter hic alium aliquem requiramus, sicut carnales Iudaei.

This so great a promise, whoever thinks it was fulfilled in Solomon, errs much. For he attends to what was said: This one will build me a house, since Solomon constructed that most noble temple; and he does not attend to: His house will be faithful and his kingdom unto eternity before me. Let him, therefore, attend and look upon Solomon’s household, full of alien-born women worshiping false gods, and the king himself—once wise—seduced into the same idolatry and cast down; and let him not dare to suppose that God either promised this mendaciously, or could not have foreknown such a Solomon and his house as they were to be. Yet we ought not on this account to be in doubt, nor—even if we did not already see these things being fulfilled in Christ our Lord, who was made from the seed of David according to the flesh—should we here vainly and emptily seek some other, like the carnal Jews.

Nam et ipsi usque adeo filium, quem loco isto regi Dauid promissum legunt, intellegunt non fuisse Salomonem, ut eo qui promissus est tanta iam manifestatione declarato adhuc mirabili caecitate alium sperare se dicant. Facta est quidem nonnulla imago rei futurae etiam in Salomone, in eo quod templum aedificauit et pacem habuit secundum nomen suum (Salomon quippe pacificus est Latine) et in exordio regni sui mirabiliter laudabilis fuit; sed eadem sua persona per umbram futuri praenuntiabat etiam ipse Christum Dominum, non exhibebat. Vnde quaedam de illo ita scripta sunt, quasi de ipso ista praedicta sint, dum scriptura sancta etiam rebus gestis prophetans quodam modo in eo figuram deliniat futurorum.

For they themselves to such an extent understand that the son whom in this place they read was promised to King David was not Solomon, that, with him who was promised now declared by so great a manifestation, they say that in wondrous blindness they still hope for another. Indeed, some image of the future reality was made also in Solomon, in that he built the temple and had peace according to his name (for “Salomon” is “pacificus” in Latin), and in the exordium of his reign he was wonderfully laudable; but by that same persona, through the shadow of the future, he too was pre-announcing Christ the Lord, he was not exhibiting him. Whence certain things about him are thus written, as if these had been foretold about himself, while Holy Scripture, prophesying even by deeds done, in a certain manner delineates in him the figure of future things.

Nam praeter libros diuinae historiae, ubi regnasse narratur, psalmus etiam septuagensimus primus titulo nominis eius inscriptus est; in quo tam multa dicuntur, quae omnino ei conuenire non possunt, Domino autem Christo apertissima perspicuitate conueniunt, ut euidenter appareat, quod in illo figura qualiscumque adumbrata sit, in isto autem ipsa ueritas praesentata. Notum est enim, quibus terminis regnum conclusum fuerat Salomonis; et tamen in eo psalmo legitur, ut alia taceam: Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare et a flumine usque ad terminos orbis terrae, quod in Christo uidemus inpleri. A flumine quippe dominandi sumpsit exordium, ubi baptizatus a Iohanne eodem monstrante coepit agnosci a discipulis, qui eum non solum magistrum, uerum etiam Dominum appellauerunt.

For besides the books of divine history, where it is narrated that he reigned, the seventy-first psalm also is inscribed with the title of his name; in which so many things are said that by no means can fit him, but with most evident perspicuity fit the Lord Christ, that it may plainly appear that in that one some sort of figure was adumbrated, but in this one the truth itself was presented. For it is known within what boundaries the kingdom of Solomon had been enclosed; and yet in that psalm it is read, to say nothing of other things: “He shall rule from sea unto sea and from the river unto the boundaries of the orb of the earth,” which we see fulfilled in Christ. For from the river he took the beginning of ruling, where, baptized by John, with that same man pointing him out, he began to be recognized by disciples, who called him not only teacher but also Lord.

Nec ob aliud uiuente adhuc patre suo Dauid regnare coepit Salomon, quod pulli regum illorum contigit, ¡nnisi ut hinc quoque satis eluceat non esse ipsum, quem prophetia ista praesignat, quae ad eius patrem loquitur dicens: Et erit, cum repleti fuerint dies tui, et dormies cum patribus tuis, et suscitabo semen tuum post te, qui erit de uentre tuo, et praeparabo regnum illius. Quo modo ergo propter id quod sequitur: Hic aedificabit mihi domum, iste Salomon putabitur prophetatus, et non potius propter id quod praecedit: Cum repleti fuerint dies tui et dormies cum patribus tuis. suscitabo semen tuum post te, alius pacificus intellegitur esse promissus, qui non ante, sicut iste, sed post mortem Dauid praenuntiatus est suscitandus?

Nor for any other reason did Solomon begin to reign while his father David was still living—a thing which befell the offspring of those kings—except that from this too it may shine forth sufficiently that he is not himself the one whom this prophecy pre-signifies, which speaks to his father, saying: And it shall be, when your days have been fulfilled, and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you, who shall be from your womb, and I will prepare his kingdom. How then, because of what follows—This one shall build me a house—should this Solomon be thought to have been prophesied, and not rather, because of what precedes—When your days have been fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your seed after you—another pacific one be understood to be promised, who was foretold as to be raised up not before, like this man, but after the death of David?

Quamlibet enim longo interposito tempore Iesus Christus ueniret, procul dubio post mortem regis Dauid, cui sic est promissus, eum uenire oportebat, qui aedificaret domum Deo, non de lignis et lapidibus, sed de hominibus, qualem illum aedificare gaudemus. Huic enim domui dicit apostolus, hoc est fidelibus Christi: Templum enim Dei sanctum est, quod estis uos. [IX] Propter quod et in psalmo octogensimo octauo, cuius est titulus: Intellectus ipsi Aethan Israelitae, commemorantur promissiones Dei factae regi Dauid, et istis, quae in libro regnorum sunt posita, quaedam ibi similia dicuntur, sicut est: Iuraui Dauid seruo meo: Vsque in aeternum praeparabo semen tuum; et iterum: Tunc locutus es in aspectu filiis tuis et dixisti: Posui adiutorium super potentem, exaltaui electum de populo meo.

For although Jesus Christ might come after a long interval of time, without doubt it was fitting that, after the death of King David, to whom he is thus promised, he should come who would build a house for God, not out of timbers and stones, but out of human beings, such as we rejoice that he builds. For to this house the apostle says, that is, to the faithful of Christ: For the temple of God is holy, which you are. [9] For which reason also in Psalm eighty-eight, whose title is: Understanding to Ethan the Israelite, the promises of God made to King David are commemorated, and certain things there are said similar to those which are set down in the Book of Kings, such as: I have sworn to David my servant: Unto eternity I will prepare your seed; and again: Then you spoke in the sight of your sons and said: I have set help upon a mighty one, I have exalted one chosen from my people.

Inueni Dauid seruum meum, in oleo sancto meo unxi eum. Manus enim mea auxiliabitur ei et bracchium meum confortabit eum. Non proficiet inimicus in eo et filius iniquitatis non apponet nocere ei. Et concidam inimicos eius a facie eius, et eos, qui oderunt eum, fugabo.

I have found David my servant; with my holy oil I have anointed him. For my hand will help him, and my arm will fortify him. The enemy shall not prevail against him, and the son of iniquity shall not add to harm him. And I will cut down his enemies from before his face, and those who hate him I will put to flight.

Et ueritas mea et misericordia mea cum illo, et in nomine meo exaltabitur cornum eius. Et ponam in mari manum eius et in fluminibus dexteram eius. Ipse inuocabit me: Pater meus es tu, Deus meus et susceptor salutis meae.

And my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name his horn shall be exalted. And I will set his hand upon the sea, and his right hand upon the rivers. He himself will invoke me: You are my Father, my God, and the upholder of my salvation.

Et ego primogenitum ponam eum, excelsum apud reges terrae. In aeternum seruabo ei misericordiam meam et testamentum meum fidele ipsi. Et ponam in saeculum saeculi semen eius, et thronum eius sicut dies caeli.

And I will set him as firstborn, exalted among the kings of the earth. Forever I will preserve my mercy for him, and my covenant faithful to him. And I will set his seed unto the age of the age, and his throne like the days of the heavens.

Quae omnia de Domino Iesu intelleguntur, quando recte intelleguntur, sub nomine Dauid propter formam serui, quam de semine Dauid idem Mediator adsumpsit ex uirgine. Continuo etiam dicitur de peccatis filiorum eius tale aliquid, quale in regnorum libro positum est et quasi de Salomone procliuius accipitur. Ibi namque, hoc est in regnorum libro: Et si uenerit, inquit, iniquitas eius, redarguam illum in uirga uirorum et in tactibus filiorum hominum; misericordiam autem meam non amoueam ab eo; tactibus significans plagas correptionis.

All which things are understood of the Lord Jesus, when they are rightly understood, under the name of David on account of the form of a servant, which the same Mediator took on from the seed of David out of a virgin. Straightway there is also said about the sins of his sons something of such a sort as is set in the Book of the Kingdoms, and is more readily taken as if about Solomon. For there, that is, in the Book of the Kingdoms: “And if his iniquity shall come, I will reprove him with the rod of men and with the touches of the sons of men; but my mercy I will not remove from him”—by “touches” signifying the stripes of correction.

Vnde illud est: Ne tetigeritis christos meos. Quod quid est aliud, quam "ne laeseritis"? In psalmo uero cum ageret tamquam de Dauid, ut quiddam eius modi etiam ibi diceret: Si dereliquerint, inquit, filii eius legem meam et in iudiciis meis non ambulauerint; si iustificationes meas profanauerint et mandata mea non custodierint: uisitabo in uirga iniquitates eorum et in uerberibus peccata eorum; misericordiam autem meam non dispergam ab eo. Non dixit "ab eis", cum loqueretur de filiis eius, non de ipso; sed dixit ab eo, quod bene intellectum tantundem ualet. Non enim Christi ipsius, quod est caput ecclesiae, possent inueniri ulla peccata, quae opus esset humanis correptionibus seruata misericordia diuinitus coherceri; sed in eius corpore ac membris, quod populus eius est.

Whence that is: Do not touch my christs. And what is that other than "do not injure"? But in the psalm, when it was treating as though about David, so that it also said something of this sort there: "If his sons have forsaken my law and have not walked in my judgments; if they have profaned my justifications and have not kept my mandates: I will visit their iniquities with a rod and their sins with scourges; but my mercy I will not disperse from him." He did not say "from them," though he was speaking of his sons, not of himself; but he said "from him," which, well understood, amounts to the same. For in Christ himself, who is the head of the Church, no sins at all could be found which would need, with mercy preserved, to be restrained by human corrections by divine appointment; but in his body and members, which is his people.

Ideo in libro regnorum: Iniquitas eius dicitur; in psalmo autem: Filiorum eius; ut intellegamus de ipso dici quodam modo, quod de eius corpore dicitur. Propter quod etiam ipse de caelo, cum corpus eius, quod sunt fideles eius, Saulus persequeretur: Saule, inquit, Saule, quid me persequeris? Deinde in consequentibus psalmi: Neque nocebo, inquit, in ueritate mea, neque profanabo testamentum meum, et quae procedunt de labiis meis non reprobabo.

Therefore in the book of the kingdoms, “his iniquity” is said; but in the psalm, “of his sons”; so that we may understand that, in a certain manner, what is said of his body is said of himself. For which cause he himself also from heaven, when his body—which is his faithful—Saul was persecuting, said: “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” Then in the subsequent parts of the psalm: “Nor will I harm in my truth, nor will I profane my testament, and the things that proceed from my lips I will not reprobate.”

Semel iuraui in sancto meo, si Dauid mentiar; id est, nequaquam Dauid mentiar. Solet enim sic loqui scriptura. Quid autem non mentiatur, adiungit et dicit: Semen eius in aeternum manet; et sedes eius sicut sol in conspectu meo, et sicut luna perfecta in aeternum, et testis in caelo fidelis.

I have sworn once by my holiness, if I should lie to David; that is, by no means will I lie to David. For Scripture is wont thus to speak. But about what he will not lie, he adds and says: His seed abides forever; and his seat like the sun in my sight, and like the moon perfected forever, and a faithful witness in heaven.

[X] Post haec tantae promissionis ualidissima firmamenta, ne putarentur in Salomone completa, tamquam id speraretur nec inueniretur: Tu uero, inquit, reppulisti et ad nihilum deduxisti, Domine. Hoc quippe factum est de regno Salomonis in posteris eius usque ad euersionem ipsius terrenae Hierusalem, quae regni eiusdem sedes fuit, et maxime ipsius templi labem, quod fuerat a Salomone constructum. Sed ne ob hoc putaretur Deus contra sua promissa fecisse, continuo subiecit: Distulisti christum tuum.

[10] After these most forceful foundations of so great a promise, lest they be thought to have been completed in Solomon, as though that were what was hoped for and not found: “But you,” he says, “have rejected and brought to nothing, O Lord.” For this indeed was done concerning the kingdom of Solomon in his descendants, down to the overthrow of that earthly Jerusalem itself, which was the seat of that same kingdom, and especially to the ruin of the temple itself, which had been constructed by Solomon. But lest on account of this God be thought to have acted against his promises, he immediately subjoined: “You have deferred your christ.”

Non ergo est ille Salomon, sed nec ipse Dauid, si dilatus est christus Domini. Cum enim christi eius dicerentur omnes reges mystico illo chrismate consecrati, non solum a rege Dauid et deinceps, sed ab illo etiam Saule, qui populo eidem rex primus est unctus (ipse quippe Dauid eum christum Domini appellat): erat tamen unus uerus christus, cuius illi figuram prophetica unctione gestabant; qui secundum opinionem hominum, qui eum putabant in Dauid uel in Salomone intellegendum, differebatur in longum; secundum dispositionem autem Dei uenturus suo tempore parabatur. Interea dum ille differtur, quid factum sit de regno terrenae Hierusalem, ubi sperabatur utique regnaturus, secutus iste psalmus adiunxit atque ait: Euertisti testamentum serui tui, profanasti in terra sanctitatem eius; destruxisti omnes macerias eius, posuisti munitiones eius <in> formidinem; diripuerunt eum omnes transeuntes uiam, factus est opprobrium uicinis suos; exaltasti dexteram inimicorum eius, iuacundasti omnes inimicos eius; auertisti adiutorium gladii eius et non es opitulatus ei in bello; dissoluisti eum ab emundatione, sedem eius in terram conlisisti; minuisti dies sedis eius, perfudisti eum confusione.

Therefore he is not that Solomon, nor David himself either, if the christ of the Lord has been deferred. For since all the kings consecrated by that mystical chrism were called his christs, not only from King David and thereafter, but even from that Saul, who was the first to be anointed as king for the same people (for David himself calls him the christ of the Lord): yet there was one true christ, whose figure they bore by prophetic unction; who, according to the opinion of men who thought he ought to be understood in David or in Solomon, was deferred for a long time; but according to the disposition of God, he who was to come was being prepared in his own time. Meanwhile, while he is deferred, what was done about the kingdom of earthly Jerusalem, where he was surely hoped to be going to reign, this following psalm added and said: You have overturned the testament of your servant, you have profaned his sanctity in the land; you have destroyed all his walls, you have set his fortifications <in> dread; all who pass along the way have plundered him, he has been made an opprobrium to his neighbors; you have exalted the right hand of his enemies, you have made all his enemies glad; you have turned away the help of his sword, and you have not succored him in battle; you have dissolved him from purification, you have dashed his seat to the ground; you have diminished the days of his seat, you have suffused him with confusion.

Haec omnia uenerunt super ancillam Hierusalem, in qua regnauerunt nonnulli etiam filii liberae, regnum illud tenentes in dispensatione temporaria, regnum autem caelestis Hierusalem, cuius erant filii, in uera fide habentes et in uero Christo sperantes. Quo modo autem ista uenerint super illud regnum, index est rerum gestarum, si legatur, historia.

All these things came upon the handmaid Jerusalem, in which some even sons of the freewoman reigned, holding that kingdom in a temporary dispensation; but the kingdom of the heavenly Jerusalem, whose sons they were, they held in true faith and hoped in the true Christ. As to how these things came upon that kingdom, the index of the deeds done is the history, if it be read.

[XI] Post haec autem prophetata ad precandum Deum propheta conuertitur; sed et ipsa precatio prophetatio est. Vsque quo, Domine, auertis in finem? subauditur "faciem tuam", sicut alibi dicitur: Quo usque auertis faciem tuam a me? Nam ideo quidam codices hic non habent auertis, sed "auerteris"; quamquam possit intellegi: "Auertis misericordiam tuam, quam promisisti Dauid". Quod autem dixit: In finem, quid est nisi usque in finem?

[11] After these things, however, having been prophesied, the prophet turns to pray to God; but the prayer itself is a prophesying. How long, O Lord, do you turn away unto the end? “your face” is understood, as elsewhere it is said: How long do you turn away your face from me? For this reason some codices here do not have “you turn away” (avertis), but “you are turned away” (averteris); although it can be understood: “You turn away your mercy, which you promised to David.” But what he said: Unto the end, what is it if not even unto the end?

Qui finis intellegendus est ultimum tempus, quando in Christum Iesum etiam gens illa est creditura, ante quem finem illa fieri oportebant, quae superius aerumnosa defleuit. Propter quae et hic sequitur: Exardescit sicut ignis ira tua: memento quae est mea substantia. Nihil hic melius quam ipse Iesus intellegitur substantia populi eius, ex quo natura est carnis eius.

Which end is to be understood as the ultimate time, when even that nation is going to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end those things had to come to pass which above, in its affliction, it bewailed. Because of which, here too there follows: Your wrath blazes like fire; remember what my substance is. Nothing here is better understood than that Jesus himself is the substance of his people, from which is the nature of his flesh.

Non enim uane, inquit, constituisti omnes filios hominum. Nisi enim esset unus filius hominis substantia Israel, per quem filium hominis liberarentur multi filii hominum, uane utique constituti essent omnes filii hominum. Nunc uero omnis quidem humana natura per peccatum primi hominis in uanitatem de ueritate conlapsa est, propter quod dicit alius psalmus: Homo uanitati similis factus est, die eius uelut umbra praetereunt; sed non uane Deus constituit omnes filios hominum, quia et multos a uanitate liberat per mediatorem Iesum, et quos liberandos non esse praesciuit, ad utilitatem liberandorum et comparationem duarum inter se a contrario ciuitatum non utique uane in totius rationalis creaturae pulcherrima atque iustissima ordinatione constituit.

“For not in vain,” he says, “have you established all the sons of men.” For unless there were one Son of Man, the substance of Israel, through which Son of Man many sons of men might be delivered, all the sons of men would assuredly have been established in vain. But as it is, the whole human nature through the sin of the first man has collapsed from truth into vanity, on account of which another psalm says: “Man has been made like to vanity; his days pass away like a shadow.” Yet God has not established all the sons of men in vain, because both he frees many from vanity through the Mediator Jesus, and those whom he foreknew were not to be freed he certainly has not established in vain—for the profit of those to be freed and for the comparison of the two cities opposed to one another by contrariety—in the most beautiful and most just ordination of the whole rational creature.

Deinde sequitur: Quis est homo, qui uiuet et non uidebit mortem, eruet animam suam de manu inferni? Quis est iste, nisi substantia illa Israel ex semine Dauid, Christus Iesus? De quo dicit apostolus, quod surgens a mortuis iam non moritur, <et> mors ei ultra non dominabitur.

Then it follows: Who is the man who will live and not see death, who will deliver his soul from the hand of hell? Who is this, unless it be that substance of Israel from the seed of David, Christ Jesus? Of whom the Apostle says that, rising from the dead, he no longer dies, and death will no longer have dominion over him.

Sic enim uiuet et non uidebit mortem, ut tamen mortuus fuerit, sed animam suam eruerit de manu inferni, quo propter quorundam soluenda inferna uincla descenderat; eruerit autem potestate illa, de qua in euangelio dicit: Potestatem habeo ponendi animam meam et potestatem habeo iterum sumendi eam.

For thus he will live and will not see death, in such wise that nevertheless he will have died, but will have torn out his soul from the hand of hell, whither he had descended for the loosening of the infernal bonds of certain ones; and he will have torn it out by that power of which he says in the Gospel: I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again.

[XII] Sed cetera psalmi huius, quae ita se habent: Vbi sunt miserationes tuae antiquae, Domine, quas iurasti Dauid in ueritate tua? Memento, Domine, opprobrii seruorum tuorum, quod continui in sinu meo multarum gentium; quod exprobrauerunt inimici tui, Domine. quod exprobrauerunt, commutationem Christi tui, utrum ex persona dicta sint illorum Israelitarum, qui desiderabant reddi sibi promissionem, quae facta est ad Dauid, an potius Christianorum, qui non secundum carnem, sed secundum spiritum sunt Israelitae, merito quaeri potest.

[12] But the rest of this psalm, which stand thus: Where are your ancient mercies, O Lord, which you swore to David in your truth? Remember, O Lord, the reproach of your servants, which I have kept in my bosom of many nations; which your enemies have reproached, O Lord. what they have reproached, the commutation of your Christ, whether they are spoken in the person of those Israelites who were desiring that the promise which was made to David be rendered back to them, or rather of Christians, who are Israelites not according to the flesh but according to the spirit, can deservedly be asked.

Dicta sunt quippe ista uel scripta tempore, quo fuit Aethan, de cuius nomine titulum iste psalmus accepit; et idem tempus regni Dauid fuit; ac per hoc non diceretur: Vbi sunt miserationes tuae. antiquae, Domine, quas iurasti Dauid in ueritate tua? nisi eorum personam in se prophetia transfiguraret, qui longe postea futuri erant, quibus hoc tempus esset antiquum, quando regi Dauid ista promissa sunt.

For indeed these things were said or written at the time when Ethan existed, from whose name this psalm took its title; and that same time was the reign of David; and therefore it would not be said: Where are your mercies, ancient ones, O Lord, which you swore to David in your truth? unless the prophecy were transfiguring into itself the person of those who were going to be long afterward, for whom that time would be ancient, when these things were promised to King David.

Potest autem intellegi multas gentes, quando Christianos persequebantur, exprobasse illis passionem Christi, quam scriptura commutationem uocat, quoniam moriendo inmortalis est factus. Potest et commutatio Christi secundum hoc accipi exprobrata Israelitis, quia, cum eorum speraretur futurus, factus est gentium, et hoc eis nunc exprobrant multae gentes, quae crediderunt in eum per testamentum nouum, illis in uetustate remanentibus, ut ideo dicatur: Memento, Domine, opprobrii seruorum tuorum, quia non eos obliuiscente, sed potius miserante Domino et ipsi post hoc opprobrium credituri sunt. Sed ille, quem prius posui, conuenientior mihi sensus uidetur.

However, it can be understood that many nations, when they were persecuting Christians, reproached them with the Passion of Christ, which Scripture calls a commutation, since by dying he was made immortal. Also the commutation of Christ can be taken in this sense as reproached to the Israelites, because, while he was expected to be about to be theirs, he has been made the Gentiles’, and many nations which have believed in him through the New Testament now reproach them with this, they remaining in oldness; so that it is therefore said: Remember, O Lord, the reproach of your servants, because, with the Lord not forgetting them, but rather having mercy, they also after this reproach will believe. But that sense which I set forth first seems to me more convenient.

Inimicis enim Christi, quibus exprobratur, quod eos ad gentes transiens reliquerit Christus, incongrue uox ista coaptatur: Memento, Domine, opprobrii seruorum tuorum; non enim serui Dei nuncupandi sunt tales Iudaei; sed eis uerba ista conpetunt, qui, cum graues humilitates persecutionum pro Christi nomi ne paterentur, record a ri potuerunt excelsum regnum semini Dauid fuisse prissum, et eius desiderio dicere, non desperando, sed petendo quaerendo pulsando: Vbi sunt miserationes tuae antiquae, Domine, quas iurasti Dauid in ueritate tua? Memento, Domine, opprobrii seruorum tuorum, quod continui in sinu meo multarum gentium (hoc est, in interioribus meis patienter pertuli); quod exprobrauerunt inimici tui, Domine, quod exprobrauerunt, commutationem Christi tui; non eam putantes commutationem <esse>, sed consumptionem. Quid est autem: Memento, Domine, nisi ut miserearis et pro tolerata patienter humilitate mea reddas celsitudinem, quam iurasti Dauid in ueritate tua?

For the enemies of Christ, to whom it is cast in their teeth that Christ, passing over to the nations, has left them, this utterance is incongruously fitted: Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants; for such Jews are not to be entitled servants of God; but these words are suitable to those who, when they were suffering the grievous humiliations of persecutions for the name of Christ, could recall that the exalted kingdom had been promised to the seed of David, and by desire for it to say, not despairing, but asking, seeking, knocking: Where are your ancient mercies, Lord, which you swore to David in your truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, which I have kept in my bosom from many nations (that is, within my inner parts I have patiently borne it); which your enemies, O Lord, reproached—what they reproached was the commutation of your Christ; not thinking it to be a commutation <to be>, but a consumption. But what is: Remember, Lord, except that you may have mercy and, in return for my humility patiently endured, restore the exaltation which you swore to David in your truth?

Si autem Iudaeis adsignemus haec uerba, illi serui Dei talia dicere potuerunt, qui expugnata terrena Hierusalem, antequam Iesus Christus humanitus nasceretur, in captiuitatem ducti sunt, intellegentes commutationem Christi, quia scilicet non per eum terrena carnalisque felicitas, qualis paucis annis regis Salomonis apparuit, sed caelestis ac spiritalis esset fideliter expectanda; quam tunc ignorans infidelitas gentium, cum Dei populum exultabat atque insultabat esse captiuum, quid aliud quam Christi commutationem, sed scientibus nesciens, exprobrabat? Et ideo quod sequitur, ubi psalmus iste concluditur: Benedictio Domini in aeternum: fiat, fiat, uniuerso populo Dei ad caelestem Hierusalem pertinenti siue in illis, qui latebant in testamento uetere, antequam reuelaretur nouum, siue in his, qui iam testamento nouo reuelato manifeste pertinere cernuntur ad Christum, satis congruit. Benedictio quippe Domini in semine Dauid non ad aliquod tempus, qualis diebus Salomonis apparuit, sed in aeternum speranda, est, in qua certissima spe dicitur: Fiat, fiat.

If, however, we assign these words to the Jews, those servants of God could have said such things who, when earthly Jerusalem was overthrown, before Jesus Christ was born in human fashion, were led into captivity, understanding the commutation of Christ: namely, that not through him was an earthly and carnal felicity to be expected—the kind that appeared for a few years in the reign of King Solomon—but a celestial and spiritual one was to be faithfully awaited. Which commutation the unbelief of the nations, then ignorant of it, when it was exulting and insulting that the people of God was captive, what else did it reproach, but the commutation of Christ—unknowing, to those who knew? And therefore what follows, where this psalm is concluded: The Blessing of the Lord unto eternity: let it be, let it be, quite fits the whole people of God pertaining to the heavenly Jerusalem, whether in those who lay hidden in the Old Testament before the New was revealed, or in those who, now that the New Testament has been revealed, are manifestly seen to pertain to Christ. For the Blessing of the Lord upon the seed of David is not to be hoped for for some time only, such as appeared in the days of Solomon, but unto eternity, in which with most certain hope it is said: Let it be, let it be.

Illius enim spei est confirmatio uerbi huius iteratio. Hoc ergo intellegens Dauid ait in secundo regnorum libro, unde ad istum psalmum digressi sumus: Et locutus es pro domo serui tui in longinquum. Ideo autem post paululum ait: Nunc incipe et benedic domum serui tui usque in aeternum et cetera, quia tunc geniturus erat filium, ex quo progenies eius duceretur ad Christum, per quem futura erat domus eius aeterna eademque domus Dei.

For the confirmation of that hope is the iteration of this word. Therefore, understanding this, David says in the Second Book of Kings, whence we have digressed to this psalm: “And you have spoken for the house of your servant into the far future.” And therefore a little afterward he says: “Now begin and bless the house of your servant unto eternity,” and so on, because he was then about to beget a son, from whom his progeny would be led down to Christ, through whom his house was to be eternal—and the same house would be the house of God.

Domus enim Dauid propter genus Dauid; domus autem Dei eadem ipsa propter templum Dei de hominibus factum, non de lapidibus, ubi habitet in aeternum populus cum Deo et in Deo suo, et Deus cum populo atque in populo suo; ita ut Deus sit implens populum suum, et populus plenus Deo suo, cum Deus erit omnia in omnibus, ipse in pace praemium, qui uirtus in bello. Ideo cum in uerbis Nathan dictum sit: Et nuntiabit tibi Dominus, quoniam domum aedificabis ipsi, postea dictum est in uerbis Dauid: Quoniam tu dominus omnipotens Deus Israel, reuelasti aurem serui tui dicens: Domum aedificabo tibi. Hanc enim domum et nos aedificamus bene uiuendo, et Deus ut bene uiuamus opitulando; quia nisi Dominus aedificauerit domum, in uanum laborarunt aedificantes eam.

For the house of David is on account of the lineage of David; but the house of God is this very same thing on account of the temple of God made out of men, not out of stones, where the people may dwell forever with God and in their God, and God with His people and in His people; so that God may be the One filling His people, and the people full of their God, when God shall be all in all, He Himself the prize in peace, who was the virtue in war. Therefore, since in the words of Nathan it was said: And the Lord will announce to you, that you will build a house for Him, afterwards it was said in the words of David: Since You, Lord Omnipotent, God of Israel, have revealed the ear of Your servant, saying: I will build a house for you. For this house both we build by living well, and God by aiding us to live well; because unless the Lord shall have built the house, in vain have they labored who build it.

Cuius domus cum uenerit ultima dedicatio, tunc fiet illud, quod hic per Nathan locutus est Deus dicens: Et ponam locum populo meo Israel, et plantabo illum, et inhabitabit seorsum, et non sollicitus erit ultra, et non apponet filius iniquitatis humiliare eum, sicut ab initio a diebus, quibus constitui iudices super populum meum Israel.

When the ultimate dedication of whose house shall have come, then that will be done which here God spoke through Nathan, saying: And I will set a place for my people Israel, and I will plant him, and he will dwell apart, and he will no longer be solicitous, and the son of iniquity will no longer add to humble him, as from the beginning, from the days in which I appointed judges over my people Israel.

[XIII] Hoc tam magnum bonum quisquis in hoc saeculo et in hac terra sperat, insipienter sapit. An quispiam putabit in pace regni Salomonis id esse completum? Pacem quippe illam scriptura in umbra futuri excellenti praedicatione commendat.

[13] Whoever hopes for this so great a good in this age and on this earth thinks unwisely. Or will anyone suppose that it was fulfilled in the peace of the reign of Solomon? For Scripture commends that peace, in the shadow of what was to come, by an excellent proclamation.

Sed huic suspicioni uigilanter occursum est, cum, postea quam dictum est: Et non apponet filius iniquitatis humiliare eum, continuo subiunctum est: Sicut ab initio a diebus, quibus constitui iudices super populum meum Israel. Iudices namque, priusquam reges ibi esse coepissent, super illum populum fuerant constituti, ex quo terram promissionis accepit. Et utique humiliabat eum filius iniquitatis, hoc est hostis alienigena, per interualla temporum, quibus leguntur paces alternasse cum bellis; et inueniuntur illic pacis tempora prolixiora quam Salomon habuit, qui quadraginta regnauit annos; nam sub eo iudice, qui est appellatus Aod, octoginta anni pacis fuerunt.

But this suspicion was vigilantly forestalled, since, after it was said, “And the son of iniquity will no longer add to humble him,” it was immediately subjoined: “As from the beginning, from the days in which I established judges over my people Israel.” For judges, before kings had begun to be there, had been constituted over that people, from the time when it received the land of promise. And assuredly the son of iniquity, that is, the hostile alien, did humble him at intervals of times, in which it is read that peaces alternated with wars; and there are found there periods of peace more prolonged than Solomon had, who reigned 40 years; for under that judge who is called Aod, there were 80 years of peace.

Ab sit ergo ut Salomonis tempora in hac promissione praedicta esse credantur; multo minus itaque cuiuslibet regis alterius. Non enim quisquam eorum in tanta, quanta ille, pace regnauit; nec umquam omnino gens illa ita regnum tenuit, ut sollicita non fuerit ne hostibus subderetur; quia in tanta mutabilitate rerum humanarum nulli aliquando populo concessa est tanta securitas, ut huic uitae hostiles non formidaret incursus. Locus ergo iste, qui promittitur tam pacatae ac securae habitationis, aeternus est aeternisque debetur in matre Hierusalem libera, ubi erit ueraciter populus Israel; hoc enim nomen interpretatur "uidens Deum"; cuius praemii desiderio pia per fidem uita in hac aerumnosa peregrinatione ducenda est.

Far be it, therefore, that the times of Solomon be believed to have been foretold in this promise; much less, then, those of any other king whatsoever. For none of them reigned in so great a peace as he; nor did that nation ever at all hold the kingdom in such a way as not to be anxious lest it be subjected to enemies; because, in so great a mutability of human affairs, to no people at any time has such security been granted as not to dread hostile incursions upon this life. Therefore this place, which is promised for so pacate and secure a habitation, is eternal and is owed to the eternals in the free mother Jerusalem, where there will truly be the people Israel; for this name is interpreted “seeing God”; for the desire of which prize, a pious life through faith must be led in this burdensome pilgrimage.

[XIV] Procurrente igitur per tempora ciuitate Dei, primo in umbra futuri, in terrena scilicet Hierusalem, regnauit Dauid. Erat autem Dauid uir in canticis eruditus, qui harmoniam musicam non uulgari uoluptate, sed fideli uoluntate dilexerit eaque Deo suo, qui uerus est Deus, mystica rei magnae figuratione seruierit. Diuersorum enim sonorum rationabilis moderatusque concentus concordi uarietate compactam bene ordinatae ciuitatis insinuat unitatem.

[14] Therefore, as the City of God was running forward through the times, first in the shadow of the future, namely in the earthly Jerusalem, David reigned. Now David was a man trained in songs, who loved musical harmony not with common pleasure, but with faithful will, and by it served his God, who is the true God, with a mystical figuration of a great reality. For the rational and moderated consonance of diverse sounds, by a concordant variety, insinuates the unity of a well‑ordered city compacted together.

Denique omnis fere prophetia eius in psalmis est, quos centum quinquaginta liber continet, quem psalmorum uocamus. In quibus nonnulli uolunt eos solos factos esse a Dauid, qui eius nomine inscripti sunt. Sunt item qui putant non ab eo factos, nisi qui praenotantur: Ipsius Dauid; qui uero habent in titulis: Ipsi Dauid, ab aliis factos personae ipsius fuisse coaptatos.

Finally, nearly all his prophecy is in the psalms, which a book of 150 contains, which we call the book of psalms. In these, some maintain that only those were made by David which are inscribed with his name. There are likewise those who think that none were made by him except those that are pre-noted: Ipsius Dauid; whereas those that have in their titles: Ipsi Dauid, were made by others and were coapted to his person.

Quae opinio uoce euangelica Saluatoris ipsius refutatur, ubi ait, quod ipse Dauid in spiritu Christum dixerit esse Dominum suum; quoniam psalmus centensimus nonus sic incipit: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum. Et certe idem psalmus non habet in titulo: Ipsius Dauid, sed: Ipsi Dauid, sicut plurimi. Mihi autem credibilius uidentur existimare, qui omnes illos centum et quinquaginta psalmos eius operi tribuunt eumque aliquos praenotasse etiam nominibus aliorum aliquid, quod ad rem pertineat, figurantibus, ceteros autem nullius hominis nomen in titulis habere uoluisse, sicut ei uarietatis huius dispositionem, quamuis latebrosam, non tamen inanem Dominus inspirauit.

Which opinion is refuted by the evangelical voice of the Savior himself, where he says that David himself in the Spirit called Christ his Lord; for the 109th psalm begins thus: “The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet.” And certainly that same psalm does not have in its title “Of David himself” (Ipsius David), but “To David” (Ipsi David), as very many do. But it seems more credible to me to reckon with those who attribute all those one hundred and fifty psalms to his work, and that he even prefixed some with the names of others who figure something pertinent to the matter, while he wished the rest to have in their titles the name of no man, since the Lord inspired for him the disposition of this variety—though hidden, yet not empty.

Nec mouere debet ad hoc non credendum, quod nonnullorum nomina prophetarum, qui longe post Dauid regis tempora fuerunt, quibusdam psalmis in eo libro leguntur inscripta et quae ibi dicuntur uelut ab eis dici uidentur. Neque enim non potuit propheticus spiritus prophetanti regi Dauid haec etiam futurorum prophetarum nomina reuelare, ut aliquid, quod eorum personae conueniret, prophetice cantaretur; sicut rex Iosias exorturus et regnaturus post annos amplius quam trecentos cuidam prophetae, qui etiam facta eius futura praedixit, cum suo nomine reuelatus est.

Nor should it move one to not believe this, that the names of some prophets, who were long after the times of King David, are read as inscribed to certain psalms in that book, and the things said there seem as though said by them. For the prophetic spirit could indeed reveal to the prophesying King David even the names of future prophets, so that something which suited their person might be chanted prophetically; just as King Josiah, destined to arise and to reign after more than 300 years, was revealed by his own name to a certain prophet, who also foretold his future deeds.

[XV] Nunc iam expectari a me uideo, ut hoc loco libri huius aperiam quid in psalmis Dauid de Domino Iesu Christo uel eius ecclesia prophetauerit. Ego autem ut hoc non ita faciam, sicut uidetur ipsa expectatio postulare (quamuis iam in uno fecerim), copia quam inopia magis impedior. Omnia enim ponere uitandae prolixitatis causa prohibeor; uereor autem ne, cum aliqua elegero, multis, qui ea nouerunt, uidear magis necessaria praeterisse; deinde (quia testimonium, quod profertur, de contextione totius psalmi debet habere suffragium, ut certe nihil sit quod ei refragetur, si non omnia suffragantur), ne more centonum ad rem, quam uolumus, tamquam uersiculos decerpere uideamur, uelut de grandi carmine, quod non de re illa, sed de alia longeque diuersa reperiatur esse conscriptum.

[15] Now I already see it is expected of me, that in this place of this book I should lay open what in the psalms of David he prophesied concerning the Lord Jesus Christ or his Church. But as for me, that I should not do this in the way that the expectation itself seems to demand (although already in one I have done so), I am hindered more by abundance than by penury. For I am forbidden to set forth everything for the sake of avoiding prolixity; yet I fear lest, when I have chosen some, I may seem to many who know them to have passed over the more necessary; then (because the testimony that is produced ought to have the suffrage of the contexture of the whole psalm, so that there be certainly nothing to gainsay it, even if not all things give their suffrage), lest after the manner of centos we seem to pluck out, as it were, little versicles to suit the point we want, as though from a grand poem which is found to have been composed not about that matter, but about another, far and quite diverse.

Hoc autem ut in quocumque psalmo possit ostendi, exponendus est totus; quod quanti operis sit et aliorum et nostra uolumina, in quibus hoc fecimus, satis indicant. Legat ergo illa, qui uoluerit et potuerit; inueniet quot et quanta rex Dauid idemque propheta de Christo et eius ecclesia prophetauerit, de rege scilicet et ciuitate quam condidit.

But in order that this may be able to be shown in whatever psalm, the whole must be expounded; how great a task this is is sufficiently indicated by the volumes of others and by our own, in which we have done this. Let whoever will and can read those; he will find how many and how great things King David, likewise a prophet, has prophesied about Christ and his Church, namely about the king and the city which he founded.

[XVI] Quamlibet enim de quacumque re propriae sint atque manifeste propheticae locutiones, necesse est ut eis etiam tropicae misceantur; quae maxime propter tardiores ingerunt doctoribus laboriosum disputandi exponendique negotium. Quaedam tamen Christum et ecclesiam ipsa prima facie, mox ut dicuntur, ostendunt; etsi ex otio estant exponenda, quae in eis minus intelleguntur; quale illud est in eodem psalmorum libro: Eructuauit cor meum uerbum bonum, dico ego opera mea regi. Lingua mea calamus scribae uelociter scribentis.

[XVI] For although, concerning whatever matter, the locutions may be proper and manifestly prophetic, it is necessary that tropical (figurative) ones also be mixed with them; which especially on account of the slower impose upon the teachers the laborious business of disputing and expounding. Certain ones, however, show Christ and the church at first sight itself, as soon as they are spoken; even if, at leisure, those things in them that are less understood are to be expounded; such as that in the same book of the Psalms: My heart has belched forth a good word, I, I say my works to the king. My tongue is the calamus of a scribe writing swiftly.

Speciosus forma prae filiis hominum; diffusa est gratia in labiis tuis, propterea benedixit te Deus in aeternum. Accingere gladio tuo circa femur, potentissime specie tua et pulchritudine tua, et intende, prospere procede et regna propter ueritatem et mansuetudinem et iustitiam, et deducet te mirabiliter dextera tua. Sagittae tuae acutae, potentissime, (populi sub te cadent) in corda inimicorum regis.

Fair in form beyond the sons of men; grace is diffused upon your lips, therefore God has blessed you unto eternity. Gird your sword around your thigh, O most mighty, in your appearance and your beauty, and aim; proceed prosperously and reign on account of truth and mansuetude and justice, and your right hand will lead you wondrously. Your arrows are sharp, O most mighty, (peoples will fall under you) into the hearts of the king’s enemies.

Sedes tua, Deus, in saecula saeculorum, uirga directionis uirga regni tui. Dilexisti iustitiam et odio habuisti iniquitatem; propterea unxit te Deus, deus tuus oleo exultationis prae participibus tuis. Myrrha et gutta et casia a uestimentis tuis, a domibus eburneis; ex quibus te delectauerunt filiae regum in honore tuo.

Your throne, O God, unto the ages of ages; a scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. You loved justice and hated iniquity; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation above your companions. Myrrh and stacte and cassia from your garments, from ivory houses; from which the daughters of kings have delighted you in your honor.

Quis non hic Christum, quem praedicamus et in quem credimus, quamlibet sit tardus, agnoscat, cum audiat Deum, cuius sedes est in saecula saeculorum, et unctum a Deo, utique sicut unguit Deus, non uisibili, sed spiritalli atque intellegibili chrismate? Quis enim tam rudis est in hac religione uel tam surdus aduersus eius famam longe lateque diffusam, ut Christum a chrismate, hoc est ab unctione appellatum esse non nouerit? Agnito autem rege Christo, iam cetera, quae hic tropice dicta sunt, quo modo sit speciosus forma prae filiis hominum, quadam tanto magis amanda atque miranda, quanto minus corporea pulchritudine, quis gladius eius, fquae sagittae, et cetera isto modo non proprie, sed tropice posita iam subditus ei, qui regnat propter ueritatem et mansuetudinem et iustitiam, inquirat ex otio.

Who would not here recognize Christ, whom we preach and in whom we believe, however slow he may be, when he hears of God, whose throne is unto the ages of ages, and of one anointed by God—surely as God anoints—not with a visible but with a spiritual and intelligible chrism? For who is so raw in this religion or so deaf to its fame diffused far and wide, as not to know that “Christ” is called from chrism, that is, from unction? But once the King, Christ, has been recognized, then let one who is already subject to him—who reigns on account of truth and meekness and justice—at leisure inquire into the rest which are said here tropically: in what way he is fair of form beyond the sons of men, by a certain beauty so much the more to be loved and wondered at, the less it is by bodily comeliness; what his sword is, which arrows, and the rest set in this way not properly but tropically.

Deinde aspiciat eius ecclesiam tanto uiro suo spiritali conubio et diuino amore coniunctam, de qua dicitur in his quae sequuntur. Astitit regina a dextris tuis in uestitu deaurato, circumamicta uarietate. Audi, filia, et uide et inclina aurem tuam, et obliuiscere populum tuum et domum patris tui.

Then let him look upon his Church, joined to so great a Man, her own, by spiritual connubial union and by divine love, concerning which it is said in what follows: The queen stood at your right hand in gilded vesture, arrayed all around with variety. Hear, daughter, and see, and incline your ear, and forget your people and your father’s house.

quoniam concupiuit rex speciem tuam, quia ipse est Deus tuus. Et adorabunt eum filiae Tyri in muneribus; uultum tuum deprecabuntur diuites plebis. Omnis gloria eius filiae regis intrinsecus, in fimbriis aureis circumamicta uarietate.

since the king has desired your beauty, for he himself is your God. And the daughters of Tyre will adore him with gifts; the rich of the people will beseech your countenance. All the glory of the king’s daughter is within, in golden fringes, arrayed about with variety.

Adferentur regi uirgines post eam, proximae eius adferentur tibi. Adferentur in laetitia et exultatione; adducentur in templum regis. Pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii; constitues eos principes super omnem terram.

Virgins will be brought to the king after her; her nearest ones will be brought to you. They will be brought in joy and exultation; they will be led into the temple of the king. In place of your fathers, sons have been born to you; you will set them as princes over all the earth.

Memores erunt nominis tui in omni generatione et generatione. Propterea populi confitebuntur tibi in aeternum et in saeculum saeculi. Non opinor quemquam ita desipere, ut hic aliquam mulierculam praedicari credat atque describi; coniugem uidelicet illius, cui dictum est: Sedes tua, Deus, in saecula saeculorum; uirga directionis uirga regni tui.

They will be mindful of your name in every generation and generation. Therefore the peoples will confess to you forever and unto the age of the age. I do not suppose anyone to be so foolish as to believe that some little woman is here being proclaimed and described; namely the consort of him to whom it was said: Your throne, O God, unto ages of ages; a scepter of direction is the scepter of your kingdom.

Dilexisti iustitiam et odio habuisti iniquitatem. propterea unxit te Deus, Deus tuus oleo exultationis prae participibus tuis; Christum utique prae Christianis. Hi sunt enim participes eius, ex quorum in omnibus gentibus unitate atque concordia fit ista regina, sicut in alio psalmo de illa dicitur: Ciuitas regis magni.

You loved justice and held in hatred iniquity. therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation before your participants; Christ indeed before Christians. For these are his participants, from whose unity and concord in all the nations this queen is made, just as in another psalm it is said about her: The City of the great King.

Ipsa est Sion spiritaliter; quod nomen Latine interpretatum speculatio est; speculatur enim futuri saeculi magnum bonum, quoniam illuc dirigitur eius intentio. Ipsa est et Hierusalem eodem modo spiritaliter, unde multa iam diximus. Eius inimica est ciuitas diaboli Babylon, quae confusio interpretatur; ex qua tamen Babylone regina ista in omnibus gentibus regeneratione liberatur et a pessimo rege ad optimum regem, id est a diabolo transit ad Christum.

She herself is Sion spiritually; which name, interpreted in Latin, is “speculation”; for she looks out upon the great good of the future age, since thither her intention is directed. She herself is also Jerusalem in the same way spiritually, about which we have already said many things. Her enemy is the city of the devil, Babylon, which is interpreted “confusion”; from which Babylon, nevertheless, this queen in all nations is freed by regeneration and passes from the worst king to the best king, that is, from the devil to Christ.

Propter quod ei dicitur: Obliuiscere populum tuum et domum patris tui. Cuius ciuitatis impiae portio sunt et Israelitae sola carne, non fide; inimici etiam ipsi magni huius regis eiusque reginae. Ad ipsos enim ueniens et ab eis Christus occisus magis aliorum factus est, quos non uidit in carne.

For which cause it is said to her: Forget your people and your father’s house. Of which impious city a portion are even the Israelites by flesh alone, not by faith; they themselves also enemies of this great king and of his queen. For coming to them and by them slain, Christ became more the possession of others, whom he did not see in the flesh.

Vnde per cuiusdam psalmi prophetiam dicit ipse rex noster: Erues me de contradictionibus populi, constitues me in caput gentium. Populus, quem non cognoui, seruiuit mihi; in obauditu auris obaudiuit mihi. Populus ergo iste gentium, quem non cognouit Christus praesentia corporali, in quem tamen Christum sibi adnuntiatum credidit, ut merito de illo diceretur: In obauditu auris obaudiuit mihi, quia fides ex auditu est —- iste, inquam, populus additus ueris et carne et fide Israelitis ciuitas est Dei, quae ipsum quoque secundum carnem peperit Christum, quando in solis illis Israelitis fuit.

Whence, through the prophecy of a certain psalm, our king himself says: You will rescue me from the contradictions of the people; you will constitute me as head of the nations. A people whom I have not known has served me; at the hearing of the ear he obeyed me. Therefore this people of the nations, whom Christ did not know by corporal presence, yet in whom the Christ announced to them was believed, so that with good reason it might be said of him: At the hearing of the ear he obeyed me, because faith is from hearing —- this people, I say, added to the true Israelites both in flesh and in faith, is the city of God, which also according to the flesh bore Christ himself, when he was with those Israelites alone.

Inde quippe erat uirgo Maria, in qua carnem Christus, ut homo esset, adsumpsit. De qua ciuitate psalmus alius ait: Mater Sion, dicet homo, et homo natus est in ea, et ipse fundauit eam Altissimus. Quis est iste Altissimus nisi Deus?

From there, indeed, was the virgin Mary, in whom Christ assumed flesh, that he might be man. Concerning which city another psalm says: Mother Zion, a man will say, and a man was born in her, and the Most High himself founded her. Who is this Most High if not God?

Ac per hoc Christus Deus, antequam in illa ciuitate per Mariam fieret homo, ipse in patriarchis et prophetis fundauit eam. Cum igitur huic reginae ciuitati Dei tanto ante dictum sit per prophetiam, quod iam uidemus impletum: Pro patribus tuis nati sunt tibi filii, constitues eos principes super omnem terram (ex filiis quippe eius per omnem terram sunt praepositi et patres eius, cum confiteantur ei populi concurrentes ad eam confessionem laudis aeternae in saeculum saeculi): procul dubio quidquid hic tropicis locutionibus subobscure dictum est, quoquo modo intellegatur, debet his rebus manifestissimis conuenire.

And therefore Christ God, before he became man in that city through Mary, he himself founded it in the patriarchs and prophets. Since, then, to this queen city of God it was said so long before by prophecy, which we now see fulfilled: Instead of your fathers sons have been born to you; you will appoint them princes over all the earth (for indeed from her sons throughout all the earth there are set over and fathers of her, while the peoples, flocking together to that confession of eternal praise, confess to her unto the age of ages): without doubt, whatever here has been said somewhat obscurely by tropical locutions, in whatever way it be understood, ought to agree with these most manifest matters.

[XVII] Sicut etiam in illo psalmo, ubi sacerdos Christus, quem ad modum hic rex, apertissime praedicatur: Dixit Dominus Domino meo: Sede a dextris meis, donec ponam inimicos tuos scabellum pedum tuorum, sedere Christus ad dexteram Patris creditur, non uidetur; eius etiam inimicos poni sub pedibus eius nondum apparet; id agitur, apparebit in fine; etiam hoc nunc creditur, post uidebitur. Verum quod sequitur: Virgam uirtutis tuae emittet Dominus ex Sion, et dominare in medio inimicorum tuorum, ita clarum est, ut non solum infideliter et infeliciter, sed etiam inpudenter negetur. Et ipse quippe fatentur inimici ex Sion missam fuisse legem Christi, quod euangelium nos uocamus, et eam uirgam uirtutis eius agnoscimus.

[XVII] Just as also in that psalm, where the priest Christ, in the way that here the king, is most openly proclaimed: "The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies as a footstool for your feet," Christ is believed to sit at the right hand of the Father; he is not seen; that even his enemies are being put under his feet does not yet appear; this is being brought about, it will appear at the end; this too is now believed, afterwards it will be seen. But as to what follows: "The Lord will send forth the rod of your power out of Zion, and rule in the midst of your enemies," it is so clear that it is denied not only faithlessly and unhappily, but also shamelessly. For even his enemies confess that from Zion the law of Christ was sent, which we call the gospel, and we acknowledge that as the rod of his power.

Dominari uero eum in medio inimicorum suorum idem ipsi, inter quos dominatur, dentibus frendendo et tabescendo et nihil aduersus eum ualendo testantur. Deinde quod paulo post dicit: Iurauit Dominus, et non paenitebit eum, quibus uerbis inmutabile futurum esse significat, quod adiungit: Tu es sacerdos in aeternum secundum ordinem Melchisedech, ex eo quod iam nusquam est sacerdotium et sacrificium secundum ordinem Aaron et ubique offertur sub sacerdote Christo, quod protulit Melchisedech, quando benedixit Abraham, quis ambigere permittitur, de quo ista dicantur? Ad haec itaque manifesta referuntur, quae paulo obscurius in eodem psalmo posita sunt, quando recte intelleguntur; quod in nostris iam popularibus sermonibus fecimus.

But that he dominare in the midst of his enemies, those very men themselves, among whom he dominare, bear witness by gnashing their teeth and wasting away and being able to do nothing against him. Then what he says a little after: “The Lord has sworn, and it will not repent him,” by which words he signifies that what he adds is going to be immutable: “You are a priest in eternity according to the order of Melchizedek”—from the fact that there is now nowhere a priesthood and sacrifice according to the order of Aaron, and that everywhere there is offered, under the priest Christ, that which Melchizedek brought forth when he blessed Abraham—who is permitted to hesitate as to about whom these things are said? To these manifest things, therefore, are referred those which are set a little more obscurely in the same psalm, when they are rightly understood; which we have already done in our popular sermons.

Sic et in illo, ubi humilitatem passionis suae per prophetiam Christus eloquitur dicens: Foderunt manus meas et pedes, dinumerauerunt omnia ossa mea; ipsi uero considerauerunt et conspexerunt me (quibus utique uerbis in cruce corpus significauit extentum manibus pedibusque confixis et clauorum transuerberatione confossis, eoque modo se spectaculum considerantibus et conspicientibus praebuisse), addens etiam: Diuiserunt sibi uestimenta mea et super uestimentum meum miserunt sortem, quae prophetia quem ad modum impleta sit euangelica narratur historia, tunc profecto et alia recte intelleguntur, quae ibi minus aperte dicta sunt, cum congruunt his, quae tanta manifestatione claruerunt; praesertim quia et illa, quae non transacta credimus, sed praesentia contuemur, sicut in eodem psalmo leguntur tanto ante praedicta, ita nunc exhibita iam toto orbe cernuntur. Ibi enim paulo post dicitur: Commemorabuntur et conuertentur ad Dominum uniuersi fines terrae et adorabunt in conspectu eius uniuersae patriae gentium. quoniam Domini est regnum, et ipse dominabitur gentium.

Thus also in that place, where Christ utters by prophecy the humility of his Passion, saying: They pierced my hands and my feet; they counted all my bones; but they themselves considered and looked upon me (by which words, to be sure, he signified on the cross a body stretched out, with the hands and feet fastened and bored through by the transfixion of the nails, and in that way that he offered himself as a spectacle to those considering and beholding), adding also: They divided my garments among themselves, and over my clothing they cast a lot—how this prophecy was fulfilled the evangelical history narrates—then assuredly the other things also are rightly understood, which there are spoken less openly, when they agree with those which have shone forth with so great a manifestation; especially because those things too, which we do not believe to be past, but gaze upon as present, just as in the same psalm they are read as having been so long beforehand foretold, so now, exhibited, are already seen through the whole orb of the world. For there a little after it is said: All the ends of the earth shall remember and be converted to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall adore in his sight. For the kingdom is the Lord’s, and he himself shall dominate the nations.

[XVIII] De resurrectione quoque eius nequaquam psalmorum oracula tacuerunt. Nam quid est aliud quod in psalmo tertio ex persona eius canitur: Ego dormiui et somnum cepi; exsurrexi, quoniam Dominus suscipiet me? An forte quisquam ita desipit, ut credat uelut aliquid magnum nobis indicare uoluisse prophetam, quod dormierit et exsurrexerit, nisi somnus iste mors esset et euigilato resurrectio, quam de Christo sic oportuit prophetari? Nam et in quadragensimo multo manifestius id ostenditur, ubi ex persona eiusdem Mediatoris more solito tamquam praeterita narrantur, quae futura prophetabantur; quoniam, quae uentura erant, iam in praedestinatione et praescientia Dei uelut facta erant<, quia certa erant>. Inimici, inquit, mei dixerunt mala mihi: Quando morietur et peribit nomen eius?

[18] Concerning his resurrection also, the oracles of the psalms by no means were silent. For what else is it that in the third psalm is sung from his person: I slept and took sleep; I arose, because the Lord will take me up? Or is perhaps anyone so foolish as to believe that the prophet wished to indicate to us, as if something great, that he slept and arose, unless this sleep were death and, on awaking, the resurrection, which concerning Christ ought thus to have been prophesied? For also in the fortieth it is shown much more manifestly, where from the person of the same Mediator, as is the custom, things which were to be in the future are narrated as if past; since the things that were to come were already in the predestination and foreknowledge of God as it were done<, because they were certain>. “My enemies,” he says, “said evil things against me: When will he die and his name perish?”

Et si ingrediebatur ut uideret, uana locutum est cor eius, congregauit iniquitatem ipsi. Egrediebatur foras et loquebatur simul in unum. Aduersus me susurrabant omnes inimici mei, aduersus me cogitabant mala mihi.

And if he entered to see, his heart spoke vanities; it gathered iniquity to itself. He went forth outside and spoke together as one. Against me all my enemies were whispering; against me they were devising evils for me.

Verbum iniquum disposuerunt aduersus me: Numquid qui dormit non adiciet ut resurgat? Hic certe ita posita sunt uerba haec, ut nihil aliud dixisse intellegatur, quam si diceret: "Numquid qui moritur, non adiciet ut reuiuescat?" Superiora quippe demonstrant mortem ipsius cogitasse et disposuisse inimicos eius, et hoc actum esse per eum, qui ingrediebatur ut uideret, et egrediebatur ut proderet. Cui autem hic non occurrat ex discipulo eius factus traditor Iudas?

They have set in order an iniquitous word against me: Will he who sleeps not add so as to rise again? Here certainly these words are so placed that he is understood to have said nothing else, as if he were to say: "Will he who dies not add so as to revive?" For the foregoing show that his enemies contrived and arranged his death, and that this was done through him who used to enter to see and go out to betray. And who here does not have come to mind Judas, made a betrayer from his disciple?

Quia ergo facturi erant quod moliebantur, id est occisuri erant eum, ostendens illos uana malitia frustra occisuros resurrecturum sic adiecit hunc uersum, uelut diceret: "Quid agitis uani? quod uestrum scelus est, meus somnus erit": Numquid qui dormit non adiciet ut resurgat? Et tamen eos tam magnum nefas non inpune facturos consequentibus indicat uersibus dicens: Etenim homo pacis meae, in quem speraui, qui edebat panes meos, ampliauit super me calcaneum, hoc est conculcauit me. Tu autem, inquit, Domine, miserere mei et resuscita me, et reddam illis.

Therefore, because they were going to do what they were contriving, that is, they were going to kill him, showing that by vain malice they would kill to no purpose one who was to rise again, he thus added this verse, as if he were saying: "What are you doing, you vain men? What is your crime will be my sleep": Will not he who sleeps add so as to rise again? And yet he indicates by the following verses that they will not do so great a nefarious deed with impunity, saying: For even the man of my peace, in whom I hoped, who was eating my loaves, has lifted up his heel over me, that is, has trampled me. But you, he says, Lord, have mercy on me and resuscitate me, and I will repay them.

Quis hoc iam neget, qui Iudaeos post passionem resurrectionemque Christi de sedibus suis bellica strage et excidio funditus eradicatos uidet? Occisus enim ab eis resurrexit et reddidit eis interim temporariam disciplinam, excepto quod non correctis seruat, quando uiuos et mortuos iudicabit. Nam Dominus ipse Iesus istum ipsum traditorem suum per panem porrectum ostendens apostolis hunc etiam uersum psalmi huius commemorauit et in se dixit impletum: Qui edebat panes meos, ampliauit super me calcaneum.

Who now would deny this, who sees the Jews, after the Passion and Resurrection of Christ, torn up by the roots from their seats by military slaughter and destruction? For, slain by them, he rose again and rendered to them in the meantime a temporal discipline, except that, for those not corrected, he reserves it for when he will judge the living and the dead. For the Lord Jesus himself, by the bread proffered, showing to the apostles this very betrayer of his, also recalled this verse of this psalm and said it was fulfilled in himself: “He who ate my breads has lifted up his heel against me.”

Quod autem ait: In quem sperauo, non congruit capiti, sed corpori. Neque enim nesciebat eum ipse Saluator, de quo ante iam dixerat: Vnus ex uobis me tradet et: unus ex uobis diabolus est. Sed solet in se membrorum suorum transferre personam et sibi tribuere quod esset illorum, quia caput et corpus unus est Christus; unde illud est in euangelio: Esuriui, et dedistis mihi manducare, quod exponens ait: Quando uni ex minimis meis fecistis, mihi fecistis.

But as for what he says: In whom I hoped, it does not agree with the head, but with the body. For the Savior himself did not fail to know him, about whom he had already said before: One of you will betray me and: one of you is a devil. But he is accustomed to transfer into himself the person of his members and to attribute to himself what was theirs, because head and body are one Christ; whence that saying in the Gospel: I hungered, and you gave me to eat, which, expounding it, he says: When you did it to one of the least of mine, you did it to me.

Se itaque dixit sperasse, quod tunc sperauerant de Iuda discipuli eius, quando est connumeratus apostolis.

He therefore said that he himself had hoped what at that time his disciples had hoped about Judas, when he was counted among the apostles.

Iudaei autem Christum, quem sperant, moriturum esse non sperant. Ideo quem lex et prophetae adnuntiauerunt, nostrum esse non putant, sed nescio quem suum, quem sibi alienum a mortis passione confingunt. Ideo mirabili uanitate atque caecitate uerba, quae posuimus, non mortem et resurrectionem, sed somnum et euigilationem significasse contendunt.

But the Jews, however, do not expect that the Christ whom they expect will die. Therefore the one whom the Law and the Prophets announced, they do not reckon to be ours, but some I-know-not-whom as their own, whom they fashion for themselves as alien from the Passion of death. Therefore, with marvelous vanity and blindness, they contend that the words which we have set down signify not death and resurrection, but sleep and awakening.

Sed clamat eis etiam psalmus quintus decimus: Propter hoc iucundatum est cor meum et exultauit lingua mea, insuper et caro mea requiescet in spe; quoniam non derelinques animam meam in inferno, nec dabis sanctum tuum uidere corruptionem. Quis in ea spe diceret requieuisse carnem suam, ut non derelicta anima sua in inferno, sed cito ad eam redeunte reuiuesceret, ne corrumperetur, sicut cadauera corrumpi solent, nisi qui die tertio resurrexit? Quod utique dicere non possunt de propheta et rege Dauid.

But the fifteenth Psalm also cries out to them: For this cause my heart was gladdened and my tongue exulted, moreover my flesh also will rest in hope; because you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your Holy One to see corruption. Who would, in that hope, say that his flesh had rested, so that, his soul not being left in hell, but quickly returning to it, he might revive, lest it be corrupted, as corpses are wont to be corrupted, except the one who on the third day rose again? Which, to be sure, they cannot say of the prophet and king David.

Clamat et sexagensimus septimus: Deus noster Deus saluos faciendi, et Domini exitus mortis. quid apertius diceretur? Deus enim saluos faciendi Dominus est Iesus, quod interpretatur saluator siue salutaris.

And the sixty-seventh cries out also: Our God is a God of saving, and to the Lord belong the exits of death. What could be said more openly? For the God of saving is the Lord Jesus, which is interpreted “Savior” or “salutary.”

Nam ratio nominis huius haec reddita est, quando priusquam ex uirgine nasceretur dictum est: Pariet filium, et uocabis nomen eius Iesum. Ipse enim saluum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum. In quorum peccatorum remissionem quoniam sanguis eius effusus est, non utique oportuit eum de hac uita exitus alios habere quam mortis.

For the rationale of this name was rendered thus, when, before he was born from a virgin, it was said: “She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus. For he will save his people from their sins.” And since for the remission of those sins his blood was poured out, it was assuredly not fitting that he should have any other exit from this life than that of death.

Ideo cum dictum esset: Deus noster Deus saluos faciendi, continuo subiunctum est: Et Domini exitus mortis, ut ostenderetur moriendo saluos esse facturus. Sed mirando dictum est: Et Domini; tamquam diceretur: "Talis est ista uita mortalium, ut nec ipse Dominus aliter ab illa exiret, nisi per mortem."

Therefore, when it had been said: Our God is a God of saving, there was immediately subjoined: And the Lord’s exits are of death, in order to show that by dying he was going to effect salvation. But wondrously it was said: And of the Lord; as if it were being said: "Such is this life of mortals, that not even the Lord himself would go forth from it otherwise, except through death."

[XIX] Sed ut Iudaei tam manifestis huius prophetiae testimoniis etiam rebus ad effectum tam clarum certumque perductis omnino non cedant, profecto in eis illud impletur, quod in eo psalmo, qui hunc sequitur, scriptum est. Cum enim et illic ex persona Christi, quae ad eius passionem pertinent, prophetice dicerentur, commemoratum est, quod in euangelio patuit: Dederunt in escam meam fel et in siti mea potum mihi dederunt acetum. Et uelut post tale conuiuium epulasque sibi huiusce modi exhibitas mox intulit: Fiat mensa eorum coram ipsis in muscipulam et in retributionem et in scandalum; obscurentur oculi eorum ne uideant, et dorsum eorum semper incurua, et cetera, quae non optando sunt dicta, sed optandi specie prophetando praedicta.

[19] But that the Jews, despite such manifest testimonies of this prophecy, even with the events brought to so clear and certain a fulfillment, do not at all yield—indeed in them that is fulfilled which is written in that psalm which follows this one. For when there too, in the person of Christ, the things that pertain to his Passion were being said prophetically, it was recalled, as was made plain in the Gospel: “They gave gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.” And, as though after such a banquet and courses of this sort served to himself, he straightway added: “Let their table before them become into a snare, and into retribution and into scandal; let their eyes be darkened lest they see, and their back be ever bowed down,” and the rest, which were not spoken by way of wishing, but, under the appearance of wishing, were foretold by prophesying.

Quid ergo mirum, si haec manifesta non uident, quorum oculi sunt obscurati, ne uideant? Quid mirum, si caelestia non suspiciunt, qui ut in terrena sint proni, dorsum eorum semper incuruum est? His enim uerbis translatis a corpore uitia intelleguntur animorum.

What, then, is the wonder if they do not see these manifest things, whose eyes are obscured, lest they see? What is the wonder if they do not look up to the celestial things, whose back is always bent, so as to be prone upon earthly things? For by these words, transferred from the body, the vices of souls are understood.

Ista de psalmis, hoc est de prophetia regis Dauid, satis dicta sint, ut aliquis modus sit. Ignoscant autem qui haec legunt et cuncta illa nouerunt, et de his, quae fortasse firmiora me praetermisisse uel intellegunt uel existimant, non querantur.

Let these things about the psalms, that is, about the prophecy of King David, be said enough, that there may be some measure. But let those who read these things and have known all those others pardon, and let them not complain about those matters which they either understand or suppose that I have perhaps passed over as the firmer ones.

[XX] Regnauit ergo Dauid in terrena Hierusalem, filius caelestis Hierusalem, diuino multum testimonio praedicatus, quia et delicta eius tanta pietate superata sunt per saluberrimam paenitendi humilitatem, ut prorsus inter eos sit, de quibus ipse ait: Beati quorum remissae sunt iniquitates et quonam tecta sunt peccata. Post hunc regnauit eidem populo uniuerso Salomon filius eius, qui, ut supra dictum est, patre suo uiuo coepit regnare. Hic bonis initiis malos exitus habuit.

[20] Therefore David reigned in the earthly Jerusalem, the son of the heavenly Jerusalem, much proclaimed by divine testimony, because his delicts too were overcome by so great a piety through the most health-giving humility of repenting, that he is altogether among those of whom he himself says: "Blessed are those whose iniquities have been remitted and whose sins have been covered." After him Solomon his son reigned over that same entire people, who, as was said above, began to reign while his father was alive. He had bad outcomes from good beginnings.

Quippe secundae res, quae sapientium animos fatigant, magis huic offuerunt, quam profuit ipsa sapientia, etiam nunc et deinceps memorabilis, et tunc longe lateque laudata. Prophetasse etiam ipse reperitur in suis libris, qui tres recepti sunt in auctoritatem canonicam: Prouerbia, ecclesiastes et canticum canticorum. Alii uero duo, quorum unus sapientia, alter ecclesiasticus dicitur, propter eloquii nonnullam similitudinem, ut Salomonis dicantur, obtinuit consuetudo; non autem esse ipsius non dubitant doctiores; eos tamen in auctoritatem maxime occidentalis antiquitus recepit ecclesia.

Indeed, prosperous circumstances, which fatigue the minds of the wise, hindered him more than wisdom itself profited him, even now and henceforth memorable, and then lauded far and wide. He too is found to have prophesied in his own books, which three have been received into canonical authority: proverbs, ecclesiastes, and song of songs. But two others, of which one is called wisdom, the other ecclesiasticus, by reason of some similarity of eloquence, custom has prevailed that they be called Solomon’s; yet the more learned do not doubt that they are not his; nevertheless the church, especially of the West, has of old received them into authority.

Quorum in uno, qui appellatur sapientia Salomonis, passio Christi apertissime prophetatur. Impii quippe interfectores eius commemorantur dicentes: Circumueniamus iustum, quia insuauis est nobis et contrarius est operibus nostris et inproperat nobis peccata legis et infamat in nos peccata disciplinae nostrae. Promittit scientiam Dei se habere et filium Dei se nominat.

Of which, in one, which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, the Passion of Christ is most openly prophesied. For indeed his impious slayers are mentioned as saying: Let us circumvent the just man, because he is unsavory to us and is contrary to our works and reproaches us with the sins of the law and brands upon us the sins of our discipline. He professes that he has the knowledge of God and calls himself the Son of God.

Factus est nobis in traductionem cogitationum nostrarum. Grauis est nobis etiam ad uidendum, quoniam dissimilis est aliis uita illius et inmutatae uiae eius. Tamquam nugaces aestimati sumus ab illo, et abstinet se a uiis nostris quasi ab inmunditiis; praefert nouissima iustorum et gloriatur patrem Deum se habere.

He has been made for us into a traducement of our thoughts. He is grievous to us even to look upon, because his life is dissimilar to others and his ways are immutable. We have been esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstains from our ways as from impurities; he prefers the last things of the just, and boasts that he has God as Father.

Videamus ergo si sermones illius ueri sunt, et temptemus quae euentura sunt illi, et sciemus quae erunt nouissima illius. Si enim est iustus filius Dei, suscipiet illum et liberabit eum de manibus contrariorum. Contumelia et tormento interrogemus illum, ut sciamus reuerentiam illius et probemus patientiam eius.

Therefore let us see if his sermons are true, and let us test what things are going to befall him, and we shall know what his last things will be. For if he is a just son of God, he will take him up and will liberate him from the hands of the contraries. With contumely and torment let us interrogate him, that we may know his reverence and prove his patience.

Morte turpissima condemnemus illum; erit enim ei respectus ex sermonibus illius. Haec cogitauerunt et errauerunt; excaecauit enim illos malitia ipsorum. In ecclesiastico autem fides gentium futura praedicitur isto modo: Miserere nostri, dominator Deus omnium, et inmitte timorem tuum super omnes gentes.

Let us condemn him with a most shameful death; for there will be regard for him according to his words. These things they thought and they went astray; for their own malice has blinded them. But in Ecclesiasticus the future faith of the nations is foretold in this way: Have mercy on us, ruler God of all, and send your fear upon all the nations.

extolle manum tuam super gentes alienas et uideant potentiam tuam. Sicut coram illis sanctificatus es in nobis, ita coram nobis magnificeris in illis, et agnoscant te secundum quod et nos agnouimus te, quia non est Deus praeter te, Domine. Hanc optandi et precandi specie prophetiam per Iesum Christum uidemus impletam.

Lift up your hand over the foreign nations, and let them see your potency. As before them you were sanctified in us, so before us be magnified in them; and let them acknowledge you according as we also have acknowledged you, because there is no God besides you, O Lord. This prophecy, in the form of wishing and praying, we see fulfilled through Jesus Christ.

Sed aduersus contradictores non tanta firmitate proferuntur, quae scripta non sunt in canone Iudaeorum.

But against contradictors, the things which are not written in the canon of the Jews are not brought forward with so great firmness.

In tribus uero illis, quos Salomonis esse constat et Iudaei canonicos habent, ut ostendatur ad Christum et ecclesiam pertinere quod in eis eius modi reperitur, operosa disputatio necessaria est, quae nos ultra quam oportet, si nunc adhibetur, extendit. Tamen quod in prouerbiis legitur, uiros impios dicere: Abscondamus in terra uirum iustum iniuste, absorbeamus uero eum tamquam infernus uiuentem et auferamus eius memoriam de terra, possessionem eius pretiosam adprehendamus, non ita obscurum est, ut de Christo et possessione eius ecclesia sine laboriosa expositione non possit intellegi. Tale quippe aliquid etiam Dominus ipse Iesus per euangelicam parabolam ostendit dixisse malos colonos: Hic est heres, uenite, occidamus eum, et nostra erit hereditas.

In those three, indeed, which are known to be of Solomon and which the Jews hold as canonical, in order that it may be shown to pertain to Christ and the church whatever of such a sort is found in them, a laborious disputation is necessary, which, if it is applied now, stretches us beyond what is fitting. Nevertheless, what is read in the Proverbs, that impious men say: “Let us hide in the earth the just man unjustly; indeed, let us swallow him up like hell while alive, and let us remove his memory from the earth; let us seize his precious possession,” is not so obscure that, concerning Christ and his possession, the church, it cannot be understood without a toilsome exposition. For indeed the Lord Jesus himself showed through a gospel parable that the evil tenants said something of this sort: “This is the heir; come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.”

Itemque illud in eodem libro, quod iam ante perstrinximus, cum ageremus de sterili, quae peperit septem, non nisi de Christo et ecclesia, mox ut fuerit, pronuntiatum consueuit intellegi ab eis, qui Christum sapientiam Dei esse nouerunt: Sapientia aedificauit sibi domum et suffulsit columnas septem; immolauit suas uictimas, miscuit in cratere uinum suum et parauit mensam suam. Misit seruos suos conuocans cum excellenti praedicatione ad craterem dicens: Quis est insipiens? Diuertat ad me. Et inopibus sensu dixit: Venite, manducate de meis panibus et bibite uinum quod miscui uobis.

Likewise that passage in the same book, which we already touched on before when we were dealing with the barren woman who bore seven, is accustomed to be understood, as soon as it has been proclaimed, as referring to Christ and the Church by those who have known Christ to be the Wisdom of God: Wisdom built herself a house and underpropped seven columns; she sacrificed her sacrifices, mixed her wine in a krater, and prepared her table. She sent her servants, convoking with an excellent proclamation to the krater, saying: Who is foolish? Let him turn aside to me. And to those poor in sense she said: Come, eat of my breads and drink the wine which I have mixed for you.

Hic certe agnoscimus Dei sapientiam, hoc est Verbum Patri coaeternum, in utero uirginali domum sibi aedificasse corpus humanum et huic, tamquam capiti membra, ecclesiam subiunxisse, martyrum uictimas immolasse, mensam in uino et panibus praeparasse, ubi apparet etiam sacerdotium secundum ordinem Melchisedech, insipientes et inopes sensu uocasse, quia, sicut dicit apostolus, infirma huius mundi elegit, ut confunderet fortia. Quibus tamen infirmis quod sequitur dicit: Derelinquite insipientiam, ut uiuatis, et quaerite prudentiam, ut habeatis uitam. Participem autem fieri mensae illius, ipsum est incipere habere uitam.

Here certainly we recognize the Wisdom of God, that is, the Word coeternal with the Father, to have built for himself in the virginal womb a house, the human body, and to have adjoined to this, as members to a head, the Church; to have immolated the victims of the martyrs; to have prepared a table with wine and breads, where there also appears the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek; to have called the foolish and those destitute in sense, because, as the Apostle says, he chose the weak things of this world that he might confound the strong. Yet to these weak ones he says what follows: Leave folly, that you may live, and seek prudence, that you may have life. Moreover, to become a participant of that table is itself to begin to have life.

Nam et in alio libro, qui uocatur ecclesiastes, ubi ait: Non est bonum homini, nisi quod manducabit et bibet, quid credibilius dicere intellegitur, quam quod ad participationem mensae huius pertinet, quam sacerdos ipse Mediator testamenti noui exhibet secundum ordinem Melchisedech de corpore et sanguine suo? Id enim sacrificium successit omnibus illis sacrificiis ueteris testamenti, quae immolabantur in umbra futuri; propter quod etiam uocem illam in psalmo tricensimo et nono eiusdem Mediatoris per prophetiam loquentis agnoscimus: Sacrificium et oblationem noluisti, corpus autem perfecisti mihi; quia pro illis omnibus sacrificiis et oblationibus corpus eius offertur et participantibus ministratur. Nam istum ecclesiasten in hac sententia manducandi et bibendi, quam saepe repetit plurimumque commendat, non sapere carnalis epulas uoluptatis, satis illud ostendit, ubi ait: Melius est ire in domum luctus quam ire in domum potus; et paulo post: Cor, inquit, sapientium in domo luctus et cor insipientium in domo epularum.

For also in another book, which is called Ecclesiastes, where he says, It is not good for man, except that he will eat and drink, what more credibly is he understood to say than that which pertains to the participation of this table, which the priest himself, the Mediator of the new testament, exhibits according to the order of Melchizedek from his body and blood? For that sacrifice succeeded to all those sacrifices of the old testament which were immolated in the shadow of what was to come; on account of which we also recognize that utterance in Psalm 39, of the same Mediator speaking through prophecy: Sacrifice and offering you did not will, but a body you have perfected for me; because in place of all those sacrifices and offerings his body is offered and is ministered to the participants. For that Ecclesiastes, in this sentence about eating and drinking—which he often repeats and highly commends—does not mean the carnal banquets of pleasure, this he shows sufficiently where he says: It is better to go into the house of mourning than to go into the house of drinking; and a little after: The heart, he says, of the wise is in the house of mourning, and the heart of the foolish in the house of feasts.

Sed illud magis commemorandum existimo de hoc libro, quod pertinet ad ciuitates duas, unam diaboli, alteram Christi, et earum reges diabolum et Christum: Vae tibi, terra, inquit, cuius rex adulescens, et principes tui mane comedunt. Beata tu, terra, cuius rex tuus filius ingenuorum, et principes tui in tempore comedunt, in fortitudine, et non in confusione. Adulescentem dixit diabolum propter stultitiam et superbiam et temeritatem et petulantiam ceteraque uitia, quae huic aetati adsolent abundare; Christum autem filium ingenuorum, sanctorum scilicet patriarcharum, pertinentium ad liberam ciuitatem, ex quibus est in carne progenitus.

But this I think is more to be commemorated from this book, which pertains to the two cities, one of the devil, the other of Christ, and their kings the devil and Christ: “Woe to you, land,” he says, “whose king is an adolescent, and your princes eat in the morning. Blessed are you, land, whose king is the son of freeborn men, and your princes eat in due time, in fortitude, and not in confusion.” He called the devil an adolescent on account of stupidity and pride and temerity and petulance and the other vices which are wont to abound in that age; but Christ the son of freeborn men, namely of the holy patriarchs, belonging to the free city, from whom he was begotten in the flesh.

Principes illius ciuitatis mane manducantes, id est ante horam congruam, quia non expectant oportunam, quae uera est, in futuro saeculo felicitatem, festinanter beari huius saeculi celebritate cupientes; principes autem ciuitatis Christi tempus non fallacis beatitudinis patienter expectant. Hoc ait: In fortitudine, et non in confusione, quia non eos fallit spes, de qua dicit apostolus: Spes autem non confundit; dicit et psalmus: Etenim qui te expectant, non confundentur. Iam uero canticum canticorum spiritalis quaedam sanctarum est uoluptas mentium in coniugio illius regis et reginae ciuitatis, quod est Christus et ecclesia.

The princes of that city eating in the morning, that is, before the congruous hour, because they do not await the opportune felicity, which is the true one, in the age to come, but hasteningly desire to be made blessed by the celebrity of this age; whereas the princes of the city of Christ patiently await the time of a non-fallacious beatitude. This he says: In strength, and not in confusion, because the hope does not deceive them, of which the Apostle says: But hope does not confound; and the Psalm says: For indeed those who wait for you shall not be confounded. Now truly the Song of Songs is a certain spiritual delight of holy minds in the conjugium of that king and queen of the city, which is Christ and the Church.

Sed haec uoluptas allegoricis tegminibus inuoluta est, ut desideretur ardentius nudeturque, iucundius, et appareat sponsus, cui dicitur in eodem cantico: Aequitas dilexit te, et sponsa, quae ibi audit: Caritas in deliciis tuis. Tacita multa transimus cura huius operis terminandi.

But this delight is wrapped in allegorical coverings, so that it may be desired more ardently and be laid bare more pleasantly, and the Bridegroom may appear, to whom it is said in the same canticle: “Equity has loved you,” and the Bride, who there hears: “Charity in your delights.” In silence we pass over many things, out of concern for bringing this work to its end.

[XXI] Ceteri post Salomonem reges Hebraeorum uix inueniuntur per aliqua aenigmata dictorum suorum rerumue gestarum, quod ad Christum et ecclesiam pertineat, prophetasse, siue in Iuda siue in Israel. Sic enim appellatae sunt illius populi partes, ex quo propter Salomonis offensam tempore filii eius Roboam, qui patri successit in regnum, Deo uindicante diuisus est. Proinde tribus decem, quas accepit Hieroboam, seruus Salomonis, rex eis in Samaria constitutus, proprie uocabantur Israel, quamuis hoc uniuersi illius populi nomen esset.

[21] The other kings of the Hebrews after Solomon are scarcely found, through certain enigmas either of their sayings or of their deeds, to have prophesied—so far as pertains to Christ and the Church—whether in Judah or in Israel. For thus were named the parts of that people, which, on account of Solomon’s offense, in the time of his son Rehoboam, who succeeded his father in the kingdom, with God vindicating, was divided. Accordingly, the ten tribes which Jeroboam, the servant of Solomon, received—appointed as king over them in Samaria—were properly called Israel, although this was the name of that whole people.

Duabus uero tribubus, Iudae scilicet et Beniamin, quae propter Dauid, ne penitus regnum stirpis eius fuisset eradicatum, remanserant subiacentes ciuitati Hierusalem, Iudae nomen fuit, quia ipsa erat tribus unde Dauid. Beniamin uero tribus altera ad idem regnum, sicut dixi, pertinens erat, unde fuit Saul rex ante Dauid. Sed simul istae duae tribus, ut dictum est, Iuda uocabantur, et hoc nomine discernebantur ab Israel;quod appellabantur proprie decem tribus habentes suum regem.

But to the two tribes, namely Judah and Benjamin, which, on account of David—lest the kingdom of his stock should be utterly eradicated—had remained subject to the city of Jerusalem, the name was Judah, because that was the tribe whence David came. Benjamin, however, was the other tribe pertaining to the same kingdom, as I said, whence Saul, king before David, was. But together these two tribes, as has been said, were called Judah, and by this name they were distinguished from Israel;which was the proper appellation of the ten tribes having their own king.

Nam tribus Leui, quoniam sacerdotalis fuit, Dei, non regum seruitio mancipata, tertia decima numerabatur. Ioseph quippe unus ex duodecim filiis Israel, non unam, sicut ceteri singulas, sed duas tribus fecit, Ephraem et Manassen. Verum tamen etiam tribus Leui ad regnum Hierosolymitanum pertinebat magis, ubi erat Dei templum, cui seruiebat.

For the tribe of Levi, since it was sacerdotal, being bound to the service of God, not of kings, was counted as the thirteenth. Joseph, indeed, one of the twelve sons of Israel, made not one tribe, as the others each did, but two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh. Nevertheless, even the tribe of Levi rather pertained to the Jerusalem kingdom, where the temple of God was, which it served.

Diuiso igitur populo primus regnauit in Hierusalem Roboam, rex Iuda, filius Salomonis, et in Samaria Hieroboam, rex Israel, seruus Salomonis. Et cum uoluisset Roboam tamquam tyrannidem diuisae illius partis bello persequi, prohibitus est populus pugnare cum fratribus suis dicente Deo per prophetam se hoc fecisse. Vnde apparuit nullum in ea re uel regis Israel uel populi fuisse peccatum, sed uoluntatem Dei uindicantis impletam.

Accordingly, the people having been divided, there first reigned in Jerusalem Rehoboam, king of Judah, son of Solomon, and in Samaria Jeroboam, king of Israel, servant of Solomon. And when Rehoboam wished to pursue with war, as though it were a tyranny, that part which had been divided off, the people were forbidden to fight with their brothers, God saying through the prophet that He Himself had done this. Whence it appeared that there was no sin in that matter either of the king of Israel or of the people, but the avenging will of God was fulfilled.

Qua cognita pars utraque inter se pacata conquieuit; non enim religionis, sed regni fuerat facta diuisio.

When this was known, both parties, pacified among themselves, settled down; for the division had been made not of religion, but of the kingdom.

[XXII] Verum rex Israel Hieroboam mente peruersa non credens Deo, quem ueracem promisso sibi regno datoque probauerat, timuit ne ueniendo ad templum Dei, quod erat in Hierusalem, quo secundum diuinam legem sacrificandi causa uniuersae illi genti ueniendum fuit, seduceretur ab eo populus et stirpi Dauid tamquam regio semini redderetur, et instituit idolatriam in regno suo et populum Dei secum simulacrorum cultu obstrictum nefanda impietate decepit. Nec tamen omni modo cessauit Deus non solum illum regem, uerum etiam successores eius et impietatis imitatores populumque ipsum arguere per prophetas. Nam ibi extiterunt et magni illi insignesque prophetae, qui etiam mirabilia multa fecerunt, Helias et Helisaeus discipulus eius; ibi etiam dicenti Heliae: Domine, prophetas tuos occiderunt, altaria tua suffoderunt, et ego relictus sum solus, et quaerunt animam meam, responsum est esse illic septem milia uirorum, qui non curuauerunt genua contra Bahal.

[22] But the king of Israel, Jeroboam, with a perverse mind not believing God—whom he had proved veracious by the promise of a kingdom given to him—feared lest, by coming to the temple of God which was in Jerusalem, whither according to the divine law that whole nation had to come for the purpose of sacrificing, the people would be seduced away from him and be restored to the stock of David, as to the royal seed; and he instituted idolatry in his kingdom, and by nefarious impiety deceived the people of God, bound with him to the cult of images. Yet God in no way ceased to reprove not only that king, but also his successors and imitators in impiety, and the people themselves, through the prophets. For there arose there those great and distinguished prophets, who also did many wonders, Elijah and Elisha his disciple; there also, when Elijah was saying, “Lord, they have slain your prophets, they have subverted your altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life,” it was answered that there were there seven thousand men who had not bowed the knee to Baal.

[XXIII] Itemque in regno Iuda pertinente ad Hierusalem etiam regum succedentium temporibus non defuerunt prophetae; sicut Deo placebat eos mittere uel ad praenuntiandum, quod opus erat, uel ad corripienda peccata praecipiendamque iustitiam. Nam et illic, etsi longe minus quam in Israel, tamen extiterunt reges, qui suis impietatibus Deum grauiter offenderent et moderatis flagellis cum populo simili plecterentur. Priorum sane regum merita ibi non parua laudantur; in Israel autem reges alios magis; alios minus, omnes tamen reprobos legimus.

[23] Likewise also in the kingdom of Judah pertaining to Jerusalem, even in the times of the succeeding kings, prophets were not lacking; just as it pleased God to send them either to preannounce what was needful, or to correct sins and to prescribe justice. For even there, though far less than in Israel, there arose kings who by their impieties gravely offended God, and were punished with moderate flagellations together with a like people. The merits of the earlier kings there are indeed not small in their praises; in Israel, however, as to the kings—some more, others less—yet we read them all as reprobate.

Vtraque igitur pars, sicut iubebat diuina prouidentia uel sinebat, uariis et erigebatur prosperitatibus et aduersitatibus premebatur, et sic adfligebatur non solum externis, uerum et inter se ciuilibus bellis, ut certis existentibus causis misericordia Dei uel ira patesceret, donec eius indignatione crescente uniuersa gens illa a Chaldaeis debellantibus non solum subuerteretur in sedibus suis, sed etiam ex maxima sui parte transferretur in terras Assyriorum; prius illa pars, quae uocabatur Israel in tribubus decem; postea uero etiam Iudas, euersa Hierusalem et templo illo nobilissimo; in quibus terris per annos septuaginta captiuum egit otium. Post quos inde dimissa templum, quod euersum fuerat, instaurauit; et quamuis plurimi eius in alienigenarum degerent terris, non habuit tamen deinceps duas regni partes et duos diuersos in singulis partibus reges; sed in Hierusalem princeps eorum erat unus, atque ad Dei templum, quod ibi erat, omnes undique, ubicumque essent et undecumque possent, per certa tempora ueniebant. Sed nec tunc eis hostes ex aliis gentibus expugnatoresque defuerunt; nam etiam Romanorum iam tributarios eos Christus inuenit.

Therefore each part, as divine providence commanded or permitted, was both raised up by various prosperities and pressed by adversities, and so was afflicted not only by external wars but also by civil wars among themselves, in order that, with sure causes existing, the mercy of God or His wrath might be laid open, until, His indignation increasing, that whole nation, with the Chaldaeans as conquerors, was not only overthrown in its seats but also, in its greatest part, transferred into the lands of the Assyrians: first that part which was called Israel in ten tribes; afterwards indeed Judah also, Jerusalem and that most noble temple being overthrown; and in those lands for seventy years it passed a captive leisure. After which, being sent away from there, it restored the temple which had been overturned; and although very many of them lived in the lands of foreigners, it did not thereafter have two parts of the kingdom and two different kings in the several parts; but in Jerusalem their prince was one, and to the temple of God which was there all came from every side, wherever they were and from wherever they could, at fixed times. But not even then did enemies and assailants from other nations fail them; for Christ found them already tributaries of the Romans.

[XXIV] Toto autem illo tempore, ex quo redierunt de Babylonia, post Malachiam, Aggaeum et Zachariam, qui tunc prophetauerunt, et Esdram non habuerunt prophetas usque ad Saluatoris aduentum) nisi alium Zachariam patrem Iohannis et Elisabeth eius uxorem, Christi natiuitate iam proxima, et eo iam nato Simeonem senem et Annam uiduam iamque grandaeuam et ipsum Iohannem nouissimum; qui iuuenis iam iuuenem Christum non quidem futurum praedixit, sed tamen incognitum prophetica cognitione monstrauit; propter quod ipse Dominus ait: Lex et prophetae usque ad Iohannem. Sed istorum quinque prophetatio ex euangelio nobis nota est, ubi et ipsa uirgo mater Domini ante Iohannem prophetasse inuenitur. Sed hanc istorum prophetiam Iudaei reprobi non accipiunt; acceperunt autem, qui ex eius innumerabiles euangelio crediderunt.

[24] But during that whole time, from when they returned from Babylonia, after Malachi, Haggai, and Zechariah, who then prophesied, and Ezra, they had no prophets until the Savior’s advent) unless we count another Zechariah, the father of John, and Elizabeth his wife, with Christ’s nativity now near; and, he now born, Simeon the old man and Anna the widow and already very aged, and John himself the latest; who, being a youth, for the youthful Christ did not indeed foretell him as about to be, yet nevertheless pointed out the unknown one by prophetic cognition; for which reason the Lord himself says: The Law and the Prophets until John. But the prophesying of these five is known to us from the Gospel, where even the virgin mother of the Lord is found to have prophesied before John. But the reprobate Jews do not accept this prophecy of these; it has been accepted, however, by those innumerable ones who have believed his Gospel.

Tunc enim uere Israel diuisus est in duo diuisione illa, quae per Samuelem prophetam Sauli regi est inmutabilis praenuntiata. Malachiam uero, Aggaeum, Zachariam et Esdram etiam Iudaei reprobi in auctoritatem diuinam receptos nouissimos habent. Sunt enim et scripta eorum, sicut aliorum, qui in magna multitudine prophetarum perpauci ea scripserunt, quae auctoritatem canonis obtinerent.

For then truly Israel was divided into two by that division which through Samuel the prophet was immutably pre-announced to King Saul. Moreover, even the reprobate Jews reckon Malachi, Haggai, Zechariah, and Ezra, received into divine authority, as the most recent. For there are also writings of theirs, as of others, who, in the great multitude of prophets, very few wrote those things which would obtain the authority of the canon.

De quorum praedictis, quae ad Christum ecclesiamque eius pertinent, nonnulla mihi in hoc opere uideo esse ponenda; quod commodius fiet adiuuante Domino sequenti libro, ne hunc tam prolixum ulterius oneremus.

Of whose predictions, which pertain to Christ and his church, I see that certain things ought to be set down by me in this work; which will be done more conveniently, with the Lord aiding, in the following book, lest we burden this one, already so prolix, further.