(Vers. 11.). He says therefore: Neither fearing anyone did you grant pardon to their sins. Neither fearing anyone, namely, as though someone more powerful than you: Ecclesiasticus 3: "Great is the power of God alone"; Isaiah 51: "Who are you, that you should fear a mortal man"? Likewise Job 22: "Will he, fearing, reprove you"? as if to say: no: indeed even "the pillars of heaven tremble and are terrified at his nod," Job 26: how much more the pillars of the earth?
(Vers. 12.). For who will say to you, that is, would dare to say, or could reasonably say: What have you done, namely, by examining the reason for your deed, as if to say: no one: whence Romans 9: "Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus"? Isaiah 45: "Does the clay say to the potter: What are you doing"? Or who will stand against your judgment? namely, by resisting your sentence: Job 9: "God, whose wrath no one can resist"; and later: "If the equity of judgment is sought, no one dares to bear witness on my behalf." Or who will come before your sight, that is, will dare to appear, as an avenger indeed of wicked men? that is, wishing to avenge the wicked by punishing you, as though you had done them an injustice by condemning them: as if to say: no one, because Deuteronomy 32: "Vengeance is mine," etc.: likewise in the same place: "See that I alone am, and there is none who can deliver from my hand." Or who will charge you, namely, by convicting you of fault, as if to say: no one: whence John 8: "Which of you will convict me of sin"? Who, I say, will charge you, if the nations which you made have perished? Have perished, through their own fault, which you made, with respect to their nature: the Gloss: "It is not the fault of the Creator if they perish, but the defect of nature"; Job 12: "If he destroys, there is no one who can build up."
(Vers. 13.). For neither, etc. Well have I said: who will do any of the aforesaid things against your judgment? For neither is there any other God than you, according to that passage of Isaiah 45: "Am I not the Lord, and there is no further God besides me"? Than you, I say, who have care for all things: above in chapter 6: "You have equal care for all things."
But to the contrary: 1 Corinthians 9: "Does God have care for oxen"?
It must be said that the care of providence is his for all things, but the care of discipline is for rational creatures alone.
So that, namely through this, you might show that you do not judge unjustly the judgment of the punishment of the wicked: in the Psalm: "You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right."
(Vers. 14.). Neither a king etc., as if to say: you judge so rightly that neither a king, who governs his own well and according to justice, nor a tyrant, who namely governs badly and through injustice: will inquire in your sight concerning those whom you have destroyed: Gloss: "Whether you have justly destroyed them," according to that passage in Job 9: "Who can say, why do you act thus?"
Since therefore etc. Here he shows the true cause why God showed mercy in the aforesaid manner of punishing, and this first by showing that God exercises justice in all things; second, that he nonetheless shows mercy: And because of this; third, that to unbelievers he sometimes shows power: Your strength etc.
(Vers. 15.). Since therefore you are just, namely in your nature, you dispose all things justly, namely in creation, namely "justly punishing a son" in the present, so that in the future you may spare him; Hebrews 12: "He scourges every son whom he receives"; Tobit 3: "You are just, O Lord, and all your judgments are just"; likewise in the Psalm: "The judgments of the Lord are true, justified in themselves." Him also who ought not to be punished, that is, corrected by temporal punishment, you condemn ; Gloss: "With eternal punishment, sparing him in the present, so that in the future you may punish": whence Ezekiel 16: "My jealousy shall be taken away from me, and I shall rest and be angry no more." And you esteem as foreign from your strength: Gloss: "That is, alien and unworthy of divine compassion." For the strength of God is compassion, according to that saying of Gregory: "O God, whose property it is always to have mercy and to spare," therefore in the Psalm: "In your strength," that is, in your compassion, "judge me." Or thus: and him who ought not to be punished, namely eternally, you condemn, namely according to the estimation of the reprobate, because you correct him in the present: and you esteem, that is, you cause others to esteem, such a one to be foreign, namely, from your strength, that is, alien and unworthy of your compassion, just as the friends of Job esteemed him unworthy of your compassion, because you punished him so grievously.
(Vers. 16.). For your strength, that is, mercy. For the work of justice is said to be foreign to God, Isaiah 28, but the work of mercy is proper to him. And this is because he has mercy on us from his own goodness, but he exercises justice upon us from our own cause, namely on account of our fault. Your strength, I say, that is, mercy, is the beginning of justice, namely ours, that is, of our justification, according to that saying of the Apostle in Titus 3: "Not by works of justice which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us"; likewise Romans 3: "Justified freely by his grace." And because you are Lord of all, namely by power, you make yourself to spare all, by mercy: whence the Gloss: "So that you who preside by power may be gentle by nature": above in chapter 11: "You have mercy on all, because you can do all things."
(Verse 17). For you show your strength, that is, power in punishing, you who are not believed, namely by those who err, to be consummate in power, that is, perfect: Job twenty-two: "They esteemed him as though the Almighty could do nothing." And those who know you not, namely the unfaithful, you convict in boldness, that is, you boldly lead to punishment, and this by the merit of their iniquities, above, chapter four: "Their iniquities shall convict them to their face."
Third, the instruction of the people of God in both is shown.
But you, ruler, etc. Having shown the punishment of adversaries and the mercy of the judge in punishing, here he shows the instruction of the people of God in both, and first he touches upon the example by which he instructs; second, the mercy concerning which he instructs: You have taught; third, the manner by which he instructs: For if enemies; fourth, the end on account of which he instructs: When therefore to us.
(Verse 18). But you, etc. I have rightly said that you show your strength and power to the incorrigible; autem stands for "but": you, master of power, etc. This can be understood intransitively, so that the sense is: you, master of power, that is, powerful; or transitively, thus: master of power, that is, Lord of all powers, namely both angelic and human: in the Psalm: "The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory." You judge with tranquility, that is, without disturbance of intellect or affection; James one: "With whom there is no change"; Isaiah forty-two: "He shall bring forth judgment in truth; he shall not be sad nor troubled." And with great reverence, in effect, that is, with great moderation, you govern us, not like that judge "who neither feared God nor regarded man," Luke eighteen. For power is at hand to you, whenever you will: behold, the cause of tranquility in judging and of reverence in governing or in executing, namely because he is omnipotent: in the Psalm: "Whatsoever he willed, he did."
But it is objected that according to the order of understanding, power precedes will, not will power. Therefore it ought to say: willing is at hand to you when you are able, not being able when you will.
It must be said that power precedes in being, but will in acting: whence he is able to do many things which he does not do, because he does not will them.
(Verse 19). For you have taught your people: but others are not taught, whence Sirach twenty-one: "He who is not wise in good will not be instructed"; through such works, namely of justice and mercy together. Because it is necessary to be just, because you are just, and humane, that is, gentle, because man is by nature a gentle animal: and this, because you are merciful, not only just; whence in the Psalm: "Mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord"; likewise: "The Lord is merciful and compassionate and just." And if the Lord, therefore also the servant; whence Matthew eighteen: "Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I also had mercy on you?" Ecclesiastes seven: "Do not be excessively just," namely to such a degree that you exclude mercy from your justice: for the Samaritan poured upon the wounded man not only wine, but also oil together. And you have made your children of good hope, that is, concerning the obtaining of pardon, your faithful ones, who are your children: whence John one: "He gave them the power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name." This is the good hope, concerning which in the Psalm: "Hope in him, all you assembly of the people"; likewise: "In God my heart has hoped, and I have been helped"; First Peter one: "Hope in the grace that is offered to you." Because judging, that is, punishing sinners, you give a place of repentance amid sins, that is, to those remaining in sins, namely by waiting for them unto repentance; Isaiah thirty: "Therefore the Lord waits, that he may have mercy on you." The place of repentance is this world: for after departure from this world there remains no place of repentance: on account of which Ecclesiastes eleven: "Wherever the tree falls, whether to the south or to the north, there it shall be." Chrysostom: "Then there will be no place of repentance, nor time for making satisfaction, nor power of restitution"; therefore Ecclesiastes nine: "Whatever your hand is able to do, work at it earnestly, because neither work nor reason nor knowledge nor wisdom will be in the netherworld, to which you hasten."
(Vers. 20.). For if the enemies of your servants, as regards sin against neighbor, to which servants, I say, it is said in Luke 10: "He who hears you hears me, and he who despises you despises me"; and those deserving of death, as regards sin against God, who is the life of souls, according to Augustine: deserving, I say, of death, according to that passage in Romans 1: "Not only those who do such things are worthy of death," etc. You tormented with such great deliberation, namely not all at once, but by punishing in parts and successively, as is evident in the plagues of Egypt; and you delivered, namely them from these, namely from temporal torments, because, when Moses prayed, they were delivered from each torment: a similar thing also happened with the Canaanites. Giving time and place, through which they might be changed from malice: time, namely the span of life, and place, namely the exile of this world: concerning time, Apocalypse 2: "I gave her time, that she might do penance"; concerning place, Job 24: "God gave him a place of penance, and he abuses it in pride."
(Vers. 21.). With how great diligence you judged your sons etc., as if to say: with great diligence and care, according to what the Psalmist sought, saying: "Rise up and attend to my judgment, my God and my Lord, to my cause." In a figure of this it is read in Genesis 3 that God, about to judge the sin of Adam, was walking about, etc. Your sons, namely the Saints, above in chapter 5: "Behold, how they are counted among the sons of God, and among the Saints is their lot." Or: your sons, that is, your faithful, according to that passage in John 1: "He gave them power to become sons of God, to those who believe in his name." Whose, namely of the sons, parents, that is, the Patriarchs, such as Abraham, Genesis 15 and 22; Isaac, Genesis 26; Jacob, Genesis 28: you gave oaths and covenants, that is, sworn covenants. Note that a covenant is a simple promise, whereas an oath is a promise with the attestation of a sacred thing; Hebrews 6: "That by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have the strongest consolation," etc. Of good promises, namely concerning the promised land and concerning the blessing of the seed.
(Verse 22). When therefore etc., as if to say: you are so beneficent and merciful to adversaries: when therefore you give us discipline, that is, corrective punishment, which is not to be rejected, according to that passage in Proverbs 3: "The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not reject," because it instructs; whence in the Psalm: "Your discipline has corrected me unto the end," etc. Our enemies, namely those who hate us, although they are loved by us, according to what the Lord admonishes in Matthew 5: "Love your enemies"; in manifold ways you scourge, namely inwardly and outwardly, according to that passage of the Psalm: "Many are the scourges of the sinner"; the Gloss: "There is a great distance between the judgment of the elect and of the reprobate: for the former he corrects, that he may amend them; the latter pay the penalties of pride and faithlessness." That your goodness, namely in the present, we may consider when judging, namely others, whom we see scourged by you: the Gloss: "Happy is the judge who always looks upon the goodness and mercy of his Judge," namely so that, having beheld the mercy of God who judges, he may learn to have mercy when he judges others: in the Psalm: "How good is the God of Israel to those who are upright of heart": Nahum 1: "The Lord is good and strengthening in the day of tribulation and knows those who hope in him." And when we are judged, namely through the sending of present tribulations, we may hope for your mercy, namely in the future, namely the reward of eternal life: James 1: "Count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various trials," etc.: Romans 5: "Glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience hope," etc.
Fourth, concerning the condemnation of incorrigible adversaries on account of contempt, six points are touched upon.
Whence also to those. Here is touched upon the condemnation of incorrigible adversaries on account of contempt of both, namely of divine justice and mercy: and first is touched upon the scourge by which they ought to have been corrected; second, the fittingness of the scourge: For indeed etc.; third, the incorrigibility of those scourged: But those who etc.; fourth, the manifestation of incorrigibility: For in these things; fifth, the reason on account of which they ought to have been corrected: Through those things which they thought; sixth, the finality of condemnation, because they were not corrected, there: On account of which etc.
(Verse 23). Whence etc., as if to say: thus you give discipline to your own; whence, namely by contrast; and, meaning also: to those who in their life lived senselessly and unjustly, with respect to error in faith; or: in their life, that is, in which they lived for themselves, not for God; and unjustly, with respect to error in morals; through those things which they worshipped, namely through brute animals, you gave the greatest, that is, exceedingly great, torments, such as through frogs and flies and locusts and wasps and things of this kind. Through these things etc.; namely in kind and without number or species.
(Vers. 24.). For indeed they themselves went astray, not for a short time, but for a long while, which aggravates their sin, because, as Gregory says, "sins are so much the worse, the longer they hold the unhappy soul bound." In the pathless way of error, that is, of unbelief, which is called error par excellence. Concerning this way it is said in Proverbs sixteen: "There is a way that seems right to a man, and its end leads to death." Esteeming as gods those things which are superfluous among living creatures, that is, animals artificially carved, not natural ones. Artificial animals are called superfluous, because they are useless; but all natural ones have some usefulness, as Damascene says. Esteeming them as gods, etc.; Romans one: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man"; likewise in the Psalm: "They changed their glory into the likeness of a calf eating hay." Note that he does not say "into a calf," but into the likeness of a calf, which is less and counts for the worse. Living after the manner of senseless children, as regards sins in morals: First Corinthians fourteen: "Do not become children in understanding"; likewise First Peter two: "As newborn babes, rational," not senseless. In this indeed they lived after the manner of senseless children, because, like children, they made and worshipped images, just as Ishmael is read in Genesis twenty-one to have played with Isaac, compelling him to worship clay images, as the Hebrews say.
(Vers. 25.). Therefore, as to senseless children, you gave a judgment in derision, that is, a punishment in which they were mocked, because they were afflicted by frogs and flies and such small and contemptible animals, not by greater and nobler ones, such as lions and bears, as is clear from Exodus seven through twelve.