Chapter IV.
Why was Achab said to have not eaten his bread? An elegant comparison of the abstinence of the rich and the poor. How foolish it is to anxiously accumulate wealth for heirs; and concerning the filth of a certain rich man.
And he did not eat his bread, he said, for he sought another's. Indeed, the rich eat another's bread more than their own, who live by plunder and exercise their own by robbery. Or surely he did not eat his bread willingly to punish himself with death because something was denied to him.
16. Now compare the condition of the poor. He has nothing, and voluntary fasting he does not know unless it is for God; fasting out of necessity he does not understand. You, the rich, take away everything from the poor, you strip them of everything, you leave nothing behind: yet it is you, the rich, who endure the punishment of the poor. They fast if they do not have; you, when you have. Therefore, you demand punishment from yourselves before inflicting it on the poor. Therefore, you pay for the miseries of miserable poverty with your own condition: and the poor indeed have nothing to use; but neither do you use it yourselves, nor do you allow others to use it. You extracted gold from the veins of metal, but then you hid it again. How many lives you bury in that gold!
17. To whom are those things kept, when you read about the greedy rich man: He hides treasures, and does not know for whom he gathers them (Ps. XXXVIII, 7)? The idle heir waits, the fastidious heir scolds, because you die late. He hates the increase of his inheritance, he hastens towards losses. What then is more pitiable, when you abandon gratitude even among those for whom you work? Because of him, you endure hunger all day long, fearing the daily losses of your meals: because of him, you observe daily fasts.
18. I knew a rich man who, when setting out for his country estate, would have the loaves of bread brought to the city and counted, so that it could be estimated how many days' worth of bread would be needed in the country. He did not want to open the sealed granary, lest anything be diminished from what had been stored. One loaf of bread was assigned for each day, which could hardly satisfy a hungry person. I also found out from a reliable source that if he ever received an egg, he would complain that a chicken had been killed. I am writing this in order for you to know that God's justice is avenged by the tears of the poor through your fasting.