Chapter XXXIX.
Do you know the time of the birthplace in the rocks, or have you observed pregnant deer? They themselves are ibexes, which the Greeks call tragelaphos, with the mixed name of bircus and cervus, because it is necessary for these animals to have something similar to themselves, and I think one of them is called a female ibex in the Song of Songs, which sometimes, according to the law, were sacrificed along with a roe deer. And they are often mentioned together in the Song of Songs, and called clean, because they had horns, chewed the cud, and divided the hoof. Of this ibex and other animals of the same kind, such as crows, as it is said in the Law: And all birds of the crow family you shall not eat. Therefore, these animals are mainly nourished on rocks and in the caves of cliffs. You know the ibex's breeding time, says the Lord to Job, or have you observed when deer give birth? There are other things in the Scriptures that are more obscure and far removed from human knowledge, about which the Lord himself seems to have spoken in this book, than those which he is now speaking to Job: for what labor is it to know the times of the deer's breeding and the ibex's giving birth? But how can the time of these birthing animals be completely unknown to human knowledge, especially when these very animals live almost in the midst of people? Therefore, lest this talk of the Lord be regarded as cheap by some and perhaps considered superfluous by them, what He said should be pondered more deeply, so that we may say that in these animals, the apostles and apostolic men are foreshadowed, and all preachers of the truth: those who, through the strength of faith and patience, like in rocks through the Spirit that fills them, bring forth the perfectly formed word of the Gospel within themselves, or give birth amidst the pains of persecutions. In the rock she was giving birth, and he who said: For in Christ through the Gospel I have begotten you. Therefore, I established this future time, and the souls of those foretold, like deer, which conceive out of fear of me, so that they may bring forth the breath of salvation upon the earth. Perhaps you, like one fulfilling the duties of a midwife, diligently observed, giving them a voice and wisdom from the womb of their mind, a word of preaching perhaps a little less firm or complete, like a newborn being poured out into this light.
Have you numbered the months of their conception and known the time of their delivery? The living and powerful word of God, penetrating even to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, progresses in this spiritual conception of certain growths, as if operating through the months of time in the depths of hearts, as it first appeared to the apostles themselves in the beginning of their preaching. They seemed small and insignificant at first, but as the Spirit strengthened them, the word manifested in them, until they reached the measure of full grace. They published, like those giving birth, a complete and perfect and full account of divine promises, to different Churches. Therefore, the conception and birth times, which happen in this spiritual womb of the heart in this way, from which even you, Job, the Lord says, could understand? And their times are determined by the counsel of my predestination in the Gospel. So, where it is said, and you knew their time of birth: others have said, and you have loosened their pains. Painful are the afflictions and tribulations that are inflicted on the preachers, from which pains they are then released when they are invited to rest from the body. Whether they are released from the pains of persecutions when, placed in hope, they look upon the promise of eternal reward in exchange for present evils.
They bend down to give birth to the fetus, and they emit cries. By giving the milk of doctrine to the unbelieving and weak, as the Apostle says: I have given you milk to drink, not solid food. They are humbled and descend from that lofty wisdom to the lower ranks of preachers, in a way becoming like a little child, and to those who are without the law, as if he himself were without the law. And while they try to form and bring forth these people in Christ, they emit cries, as they are burdened by the enemies of Christ beyond measure and beyond their own strength, to the point that they are even disgusted with living. Of whom the Apostle also says: And now weeping I say, the enemies of the cross of Christ. Whether they emit such a roar from the affection of this love, as the same Apostle says: I have great sadness and continual pain in my heart. He also says: I have written to you with many tears, through much tribulation and anguish of heart. Grieving with these loving feelings, he says: My little children, whom I am in labor again until Christ is formed in you. He says in the Acts of the Apostles, where he addresses the entire gathered brotherhood: 'Be vigilant, remembering that for three years, night and day, I did not cease to admonish each one of you with tears. And again he says: 'You yourselves know how I have been with you all the time, serving the Lord with all humility and tears.' Therefore, these things were said so that we may know that tribulation, distress, tears, and continuous heartache pertain to groans and cries of the saints. Otherwise, they bend towards the fetus, and give birth, and emit cries: when the preachers of the truth begin to preach the word of faith with clear speech, they are immediately bent over by their adversaries, that is, they are humiliated by the restraints of prison and by beatings; but because the word of God is not bound in chains: nevertheless, there they give birth to that same word to the people, by which they themselves are born in Christ: As the holy Apostle says, as we have said, to the regenerated: In Christ Jesus through the Gospel I have begotten you: Afterwards, to God, they emit cries of supplication in prayers, either praying to God for their persecutors, or imploring the assistance of divine grace for the perseverance of the faithful. Otherwise, they emit roars because anyone who adds knowledge adds sorrow: the saints groan, pondering on the dangers of this life and how far they are from the virtues they require.
Their sons are separated from them and they go to pasture: they go out and do not return to them. In the apostolic childbirth, the sons whom the holy ones have begotten in Christ are separated from their former errors and even from their carnal works: in which they now blush, so that they no longer live for themselves, but for Christ, who died for them and rose again. They go to pasture: that is, they make progress through a deeper knowledge and understanding, being daily excited by their conduct, saying, 'The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want,' and the rest that follows in the same psalm; thus, I say, the holy sons of those proclaiming peace advance, as I have already said, that is, they grow and make progress. To this pasture of the Lord, and to this nourishment of holy souls, and to such spiritual delights, they go forth certainly from infancy, daily advancing in morals, progressing by merit in virtues to a perfect man. And they do not return to those things. They do not return, so that it is necessary to teach them again what are the elements of the beginnings of God's words. They do not return to those things which are behind, but they reach out to those things which are before. They do not turn back, like some whom the Apostle says: My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you: but rather they ascend the steps of the virtues, walking from virtue to virtue. These kinds of children cannot hear, like the Galatians, the voice of the reproaching Apostle: I would wish to be present with you, and to change my voice. Therefore, this talk of God, under the figure of goats and ibexes, describes the apostles, as I have already said, and the apostolic men, and all the teachers of the Church, through whose teaching the Church generates spiritual children for itself. And each soul that conceives the word of God gives birth to the children of good works, which nevertheless resembles a deer and a goat, so that it may dwell in the mountains and be nourished on rocks, and be swift and eager to run the way of the Lord. It also raises serpents from its own land and lives for a long time, hearing the prophet: 'The years of your life will be increased.' Such are the deer on the lofty mountains, which the voice of the Lord perfects, and whose feet he will lead to completion.
Who released the wild donkey, and who loosed its bonds? We have shown that the figure of the Church is represented by the deer and the ibex above. Now, however, we believe that by the name of the wild donkey, the people of the Jews can be understood, whom God dismissed because of their unbelief, as it says: And he let them go according to the desires of their hearts. We believe that God testifies in many other places in Scripture that this will happen. We understand that the bonds of each are the legal precepts. Therefore, the same rebellious and stubborn people, the prophet rebukes and reproaches, saying: 'O wanton cow of Israel, you have broken the yoke, you have burst the chains.' So the Lord declared that he left this rebellious and unclean people, like a wild donkey, so that they would be freed from the yoke of his rule, because they always resisted obedience and were released from the chains of the devil's commands, and as the Apostle says, they became servants of sin, they would be set free to righteousness. For the Lord himself said about the Jews in the psalm: 'Let us break their chains and throw off their shackles,' where the very Trinity of God seems to have said this. For just as in Genesis God spoke in the plural when creating man, saying, 'Let us make man in our image, after our likeness,' so here He spoke, saying, 'Let us break their bonds and cast away their yoke from us.' The book of Acts clearly declares that this passage refers to when the apostles raised their voices to God and said, 'O Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and all that is in them, who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said, 'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?' The kings of the earth stood up, and the princes gathered together against the Lord and against His Christ. Therefore, because of this crime that was committed against Christ, the Son of God, the Father spoke, who had predicted this in His spirit, saying: Let us break their chains and cast away their yoke from us. A great and abominable sin was committed, by which they crucified the Savior, so that the chains of God's commandments would rightly be broken by them, and thus the yoke of the law would be cast away. But as for the yoke and the chains being called theirs, when they belonged to God rather than the Jews, to whom He had given the law and commandments of the commandments: this is what must be sought most of all, that it was said in this way because the Jews, understanding the law in a carnal manner, thought they could fulfill it through works as if it were their own, as the Apostle says: But Israel, following the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law of righteousness. Why? Because it was not by faith, but by works. And consequently he concludes about the same things, saying: For being ignorant of God's justice and seeking to establish their own, they are not subject to God's justice. But what he says, desiring to establish their own justice, he does not say because the law is established by them, but because they had established their own in the law which is from God, when they believed that they were able to fulfill the same law by their own strength, and therefore according to this sense, the bonds of the Jews are said to be broken and their yoke cast away by God.
To whom he gave a house in the wilderness. I made the just to dwell in the wilderness, deprived, as it were, of the protection of my defense, as I also afterwards spoke by the mouth of the prophet, saying: Let their habitation become desolate, and let there be none to dwell in their tents. Therefore that people became solitary, and they were made desolate, because they had transgressed the law, the prophets had not confirmed them, and they had violated the priesthood and the covenant of grace, and were destitute of divine benefits and the protection of grace.
And his dwellings were in the land of salt. So that she could live without any hope of God's promise, she was said to have received a barren land of salt: where, apart from the bitterness with which she provoked God to anger, she had nothing. For thus does the prophet elsewhere speak about God: You have turned rivers into a desert, and the expanse of water into a thirsty land. A fertile land into a land of salt due to the wickedness of those who dwell in it.
He despises the multitude of the city, he does not hear the cry of the tax collector. This church is the city, which consists of a multitude of countless peoples, of which the Lord says: A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Therefore, anyone who despises and rejects this Jewish multitude also despises and rejects the cry of anyone who proclaims the word of God and demands obedience to the faith, and does not hear it, that is, he refuses to obey. Because of this, their hearts have become hardened, and they have closed their eyes so that they do not see with their eyes, and their ears do not hear, and they do not understand with their hearts.
He looks around at the mountains of his pasture, and seeks out everything that is green. He goes around the mountains, the proud teachers, namely the scribes and the Pharisees of his law, as if looking up to them and giving them honor by going around them with flattery. Without a doubt, he does not depart from them, in whom is the doctrine of men, in whom also are the mountains where they boast of having the pastures of the fleshly law. He seeks out everything that is green, which surely belongs to the delights of the flesh and the delicate Sabbaths, and which, like the green surface of the law's histories, have no fruit of figures.
Does the rhinoceros want to serve you, or will it delay at your manger? Or, as others have said: Does the unicorn want to serve you? From different translations, we note that the rhinoceros is the same as the unicorn, and it is understood in Latin as a unicorn, or having a horn on its nose. Therefore, such creatures exist in the solitude of the East, and they are sometimes seen or captured by humans. This unicorn, therefore, represents the image of a pagan people; its pride is also symbolized in its horn, just as the prophet says to some sinners and the proud: I said to the wicked, 'Do not act wickedly'; and to the evildoers, 'Do not lift up your horn.' Do not lift up your horn on high; do not speak with a stiff neck. In many other places in the Scriptures, the term 'horn' is used to refer to pride, although it can also be used in a positive sense, as in the phrase 'He will exalt the horn of his anointed.' For even the Lord Christ himself, because of his singular authority, is sometimes called a unicorn. We also read that horns and kingdoms are called unicorn, as it is contained in the Book of Daniel and in the Apocalypse. Here the unicorn, which through worldly wisdom was raised in pride to the heights, will it be brought down and subjected to you, says the Lord to Job, so that, being faithful in holiness and righteousness, serving in obedience, it may submit its neck and become gentle and humble, and hasten to the Lord's manger, and be nourished by the divine and human words, and be satisfied with sacred food. Whether it is to be subjected, so that it may dwell in the cloister of my Church, which will be a stable for travelers and a safe haven for those renouncing this world: where it may grow fat on the nourishment of spiritual food, instructions, and heavenly discourses, and be filled with that which will be preached by the prophet afterwards: The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib. Indeed, in the mentioned unicorn, just as in the prophet through the donkey, the unclean and uncircumcised people of all nations are signified.
Will you bind the rhinoceros to your plow, or will it break the clods of the valleys behind you? We must understand that this place itself is called the charity of Christ, which is preeminent among all virtues, of which the Apostle says, 'Being bound together in charity.' The chains of which were predicted long ago by the prophet, saying to God, 'The labor of Egypt and the commerce of Ethiopia, and the men of Sabah, shall pass over to you, and they shall be yours, and they shall walk after you: bound with fetters they shall go forth.' And David, describing how believers are overcome by the bonds of the love of God through the ministers of the word of God, speaks as follows: To bind their kings with fetters of iron. He intended to demonstrate the power of Christ's love through the names of these bonds, which also, strong and mighty in iron chains, binds them to the love of the Lord. Therefore, this rhinoceros, that is, the once uncircumcised people, bound by the foreskin of carnal pleasures and unbelief, is bound by this strongest bond of Christ's love, so that no creature can separate him from Christ: he forms clods of valleys in his body, namely the hardness of sins, and he cultivates the Lord's land in his body, according to the Apostle, who says: You are not your own. And so here especially is the land of the Lord, in which the purification of all sins, like the thorns and thistles, is first made. Then, with the plow of the cross and the iron of the Lord's passion, the hardness of the heart is crushed, and the clods of the valleys are broken. By the name of valleys, I think that men humbled by sins and cast down into the depths are signified, as we have in the psalm: He sets his steps in his heart, in the valley of tears. Therefore, Isaiah, when about to prophesy with reprimand, put this title before the sinner of his prophecy, saying: The burden of the valley of vision. Therefore, the unicorn breaks the clods of such valleys, when it consumes the earth with a humble body and prepares it for receiving the seeds of heavenly precepts and yielding fruits; when it chastises its body with the Apostle and brings it into servitude; when it strives to remove all dullness of a stubborn heart and hard stupidity from itself, which, however, the Lord says it will never be able to accomplish unless it has obediently followed its ruler and governor. Where the Lord said to Job: or will he break the clods of the valleys for thee, which we have in the Psalm: My soul hath cleaved unto thee. And the prophet says of this: After thee they shall walk, he saith, bound with fetters: where I see such feet worthy of admiration, which the more bound they are, the more swiftly they go forth without stumbling.
Will you have confidence in his great strength, and will you abandon your labors to him? Will you believe in him, that he will give you a harvest and gather your grain? For I, the Lord, know the strength of his love, patience, and endurance, and therefore I have entrusted to him all the labors of my mission, which he will understand through his belief in me. For his sake, I endured slaps, beatings, and spit, and I worked for him, flying to the heavens as an example of labor and virtue. I have left him with those things in which I believed and entrusted to him, with the help of my grace, that he may produce a multiplied seed and bring forth thirty, sixty, and a hundredfold fruit in the field of my Church, and gather your grain, just as many doctors did after the apostles.
The feather of the ostrich is similar to the feathers of the heron and the hawk. There are said to be three species of herons, one of them is said to be white in color, another is said to be variously colored like a crane, and the third is said to be black. They say that the third species is not only swift and fierce in pursuit of prey, but also extremely impatient in mating, to the extent that blood boils in its eyes during the act of copulation. The heron is named in Psalm 103: 'The house of the heron is their leader, when the Lord speaks of the figurative use of trees.' In Deuteronomy and Leviticus, Moses prohibits the consumption of unclean birds as food, and this is similarly stated. There are also several forms or species of birds of prey. Among these most rapacious birds, living by hunting and prey, the ostrich is compared, as others have said: 'The ostrich with the wings of a heron and an eagle.' Therefore, by a spiritual understanding and divine senses, we rightly understand the ostrich to represent the Church, which has been cleansed and made pure in Christ through the washing of regeneration and the Word. Just as the ostrich has wings similar to birds that feed on flesh and blood. But these (birds) move with the rowing of their wings in this air as if in the sea, in order to capture prey from other birds. Hence, under this image, our spiritual enemies are understood. However, the ostrich uses its feathers in a far different way: because it extends them like the oars of a vessel, living by faith and the appearance of two testaments. This bird, the Lord says to Job:
When he abandoned his eggs on the ground, did you perhaps warm them in the dust? By eggs, or rather sons, as it is said in the following, we should understand a new creature generated and born in Christ, and the bright offspring of the holy Church. But we should know that these eggs are those who are nourished by the daily teaching, like a certain fetus of the mother Church, so that eventually, progressing from the frugality and imperfection of the beginnings, they may become, as if formed and shaped with distinct joints of limbs, a vessel of virtues, when they have been made light in the Lord from the darkness of vices, advancing daily towards the maturity of age and character. Let them listen to the prophet himself saying this: Days shall be fashioned, and no one in them, that is, no vice shall have dominion over them, by which they may be vanquished. But let us understand the sons to be now, as usual, stronger, composed of faith and virtues, and formed by the growth of virtues, as if already having nothing of all the weakness of unformed life. Therefore, as the Lord says, they are left on earth by the Church when they endure persecution from the impious and the earthly wise. For the Church is said to abandon them when it does not resist those who oppose it, whom the Lord makes strongest with the fervor of faith and the patience of hardening, as in that fire that he sent to the earth and in the dust of their fragile flesh.
He forgets that his foot might trample them, or that a beast of the field might crush them. The Church forgets its own children, while it does not prohibit their being oppressed by the burden of hardships brought upon them by adversaries. In this place, I think there is a difference of tribulations because of what he said, his foot might trample, and what he said, and the beasts of the field might crush. And let this be the crushing of beasts, when openly fierce, savage, and like beasts in the cruelty of their manners. Those who confess Christ afflict themselves even unto the atrocity of death. But the foot of trampling is such a tribulation, when the holy ones are humiliated everywhere by reproaches and excessive contempt of the wicked, as if crushed by a certain trampling.
It endures for its children as if they were not its own: it labored in vain, with no compelling fear. In the midst of the tribulations of its children, the Church appears harsh and unfeeling, since it does not lament and mourn the hardships and death of its offspring. In the likeness of this, the holy mother of the Maccabees rejoiced over the tortures of her children: for she saw in spirit, just as here the holy mother Church contemplates daily through faith, how much glory the present punishments will bring forth for eternity, through the profession of the accepted truth. And therefore, because of what follows, he labored in vain, with no compelling fear, he marks the Church, which prepares her sons for temptation and the troubles of this world, hoping certainly from God for the glory of her temporary evils, and the eternal happiness of incorruption for her sons. Otherwise, even if he had grieved for his consecrated sons, he would have grieved in vain, because he did not have any reasons to fear, since he did not lose them, but acquired them.
For God has deprived her of wisdom and has not given her understanding. The wisdom and understanding of this worldly Church are deprived of God; for the Apostle also instructs that this must be done, saying: 'Whoever wants to become wise, let him become foolish, so that he may become wise: for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.'
When the time comes, he raises himself on high wings, derides the horse and its rider. When a more troubling and excessively bitter affliction of the persecutor comes upon him, there is a greater heartfelt appeal to God by the one being afflicted, who is roused and raised up in a most vigilant intention to pray fervently to the Most High, and who, supported as it were by the wings of faith and hope, borne up by the help of divine grace, and sustained by such wings, his steps indeed become swifter and more agile. Thus, he derides his pursuing enemies, that is, the horse and its rider, which are the devil and the man who serves as the enemy’s agent, who sits on his horse, that is, in the heart of the persecutor, in order to carry out persecutions against the Church.
Will you give strength to the horse, or will you clothe his neck with neighing? This horse can be understood as the opposing power, who is pale, as it is written in the Apocalypse, whom death and Hades follow. And he is said to be red, sprinkled with the blood of men, as it is mentioned in the Prophet Zachariah. Therefore, while it is allowed to be given to him by God, it is said to be strength, and his neck is clothed with neighing, so that through God's patience and goodness, he may store up wrath for himself on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. And therefore, it is signified in his neck, the ringing of pride, by which he swells up against God and speaks blasphemy.
Will you rouse him up as it were locusts? For more than locusts, our adversary is said to be roused up, when he is said to go from his places to divide the regions, and to lay waste, just as the psalmist says of God: He spoke, and the locust came. But I think that this rousing up is an instance of the work being accomplished. Hence it is said to Pharaoh: For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I may show my power in you, and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth.
The glory of his nostrils is terror. Or as others have said: The glory of his breast is audacity. To turn the enemy into flight from his adversary, the soldier of Christ, he also terrifies with his very breath: this is the smell of death, this is the furious spirit panting for the death of man, he looks back, who turns again to sin, or yields to tribulation, as the Lord has taught in the Gospel through a parable.
The hoof digs into the earth. Or, as others have said: digging in the field thrives, that is, carnal men, and tramples and crushes the earthly wise, and once he has humiliated them and subjected them to him, he makes them broken by that brokenness, such as it is, and the unhappiness in the ways of wicked men. In this kind of breadth of vices, like thriving in the field, he digs to undermine the foundations of virtues from men, so that they may fall into ruin with their solidity taken away.
He rejoices boldly. He is proud of the audacity of presumption, as long as he fights destructively against men.
He advances to meet them armed. The Apostle explains diligently what are the weapons of the saints against spiritual wickedness. Therefore, being clothed with these weapons, he is said to advance to meet them when, attempting to storm the fortress of the mind, he hurls battering rams against the wall of virtues and, daringly venturing to tempt the Lord, he comes to meet Him in the desert, and confronts the apostles preaching Christ in each city, when he stirs up commotions of sedition among the people, as we also read in the Acts of the Apostles. Wherefore also to some Paul saith: A great and evident door is opened unto me, but there are many adversaries. And in many other places he does not keep silence concerning this assault of adversaries, whom the devil sent forth.
He despises fear and does not yield to the sword. That the devil is driven away at the command and invocation of God is evident; but if we consider his insolence and most wicked and shamelessly impudent will, he is not frightened, he does not blush even if he has been terrified and put to flight by the sword of God, and he returns again, and does not depart unrebutted.
The bow will sound, the spear will shake, and the shield. Why does the enemy have a bow? So that the Jews, Gentiles, and heretics who sit in it may shoot straight arrows of death, namely the deadly doctrines of errors, into the darkness towards those with a righteous heart. It has a spear with which it pierces sinners with crimes and other vices, sharper devices, a spear, traps for sins and deadly ones. It has a shield with which, filled with malice, it covers the chest of all its soldiers, so that they may not be pierced by the arrows of God's words; it repels them, frustrates them, and hurls them aside. Transformed into an angel of light, with a certain terrifying splendor, the spear and shield vibrate, and the corrupt teachings of the heretics are shattered by the thunderous words of falsehood; and because of its constant tension and use, it is said to vibrate pleasingly.
The devil, fervent and raging, sucks in the earth. The devil is fervent with vices, an enemy of the saints, and burning with the fire of all crimes, and raging against man with the fury of envy, in order to now suck in sinners with his enticements, and transfer the devoured ones into the body of his lost congregation, with which body the prophet said that he would perhaps be swallowed up, if the Lord were not in it: thus he says: If the Lord were not with us, perhaps the living would have swallowed us up. So here our adversary himself is, to whom God spoke, saying: You shall eat the earth all the days of your life. And for this reason he and his associates, as enemies of the Lord, will lick the earth.
And he does not consider the sound of the trumpet to be a noise. That is, he rejects the hearing of the reprimand of the prophets and apostles, to whom it is said: 'Lift up your voice like a trumpet.' But rather, raging, he says like the true Pharaoh: 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, and so on.' In these places of which we have spoken, others have translated: 'For he rejoices over the bow itself and over the sword, spear, javelin, and he overturns the earth with trembling and anger. He does not believe until the trumpet has sounded.' Where I think the same sense is contained, according to what we have explained. In battle, with sword and other weapons of the enemy, all his inventions must be understood, which delight in killing a man with these methods, as if with weapons.
When he hears the trumpet, he says, 'Oh! From afar, he smells war, the exhortation of leaders, and the howling of the army. 'When he hears', he says, 'our adversary has heard the trumpet of God', that is, each teacher of the Church urging his fellow soldiers to stand strong in battle, according to the imperial and divine command, against their adversary. With a stunned and astonished mind, and with ears astounded, he says, 'Oh!' as if he were saying, 'What do I hear?' Does anyone have the audacity to think about preparing for war against me at least? Where then is it said, 'Woe! Others said Hooray, because according to the context, it can be understood, whether for good or for evil,' and in the Psalter: 'Let them be confounded and ashamed, who say to me, Hooray, hooray.' Therefore, in this place with a mocking spirit and a mocking face, 'hooray' is said. For the enemy is subtle and very watchful, and too clever, who has the whole earth for losing care when he senses any beginnings or certain signs in a person, how to resist him and his vices, like a well-fed animal, he tries to anticipate those opposing him: so that they do not take up the weapons of holiness against the devil: so that they do not become worthy of veneration when the eternal King arrives. But the howling, or rather the sound, as others have said, of the army of the true emperor, that is when they encourage each other with one spirit, one charity, and one faith, and with united forces of the fear of the Lord, so that, until iniquity passes away, they are persevering in battle: because the love of their king, infused in them by the Holy Spirit, who is given to them, makes them concerned for one another as members.
Will you raise him up like locusts? Whom I caused to leap from place to place, and in the present, I inflamed from the pleasure of the world to the desire of the future age, so that he was awakened from the body of unbelief, like the sun when warmth comes. But we know that these changes are not of physical places, for they are the affections of souls.
The glory of his nostrils is terror. He terrifies sinners, hating what they are, and saying to them about God: Unless you repent, he will brandish his sword, and so on. The glory of his nostrils is that the spirit of God is in his nostrils, which even the holy Job said: The spirit of God is in my nostrils. The Church is perfumed with this ointment, by the spirit of God indeed, as the Apostle John writes: And you have an anointing from the Holy One. Therefore, in this place we are discussing, the human's inner sense was passionate about the good: in which sense, according to the will's decision, some scent of death leads to death, and some scent of life leads to life, since the world has been filled with the poured-out myrrh of faith on Christ, that is, from the holy Church: all the people of the faithful, anointed with the same sacred chrism. Therefore, the very ointment, which was kept in the narrowness of an alabaster vessel before the knowledge of the Savior, was called pistice, so that we may know the peoples of the believers consecrated by the chrism, as He said. Therefore, the inner senses are permeated by the glory of this scent, as if by the terror of generation.
The hoof digs into the ground. It leaps boldly and proceeds to meet the armed. Whatever it has in itself primarily for the perseverance of substance, it certainly divides and moves the earth for the sake of the good of virtue. For it does not allow it to only walk uncultivated, but it strives for the field to become fruitful and abundant. Therefore, it boldly rejoices before God, so that he may hear about itself, just as it is said about others: But they will come in rejoicing, carrying their sheaves. And also, listen, good servant, because you have been faithful in few things, I will set you over many. He goes forth to meet them armed, before the arrows of vices or the persecutions overwhelm him from spiritual enemies, standing in the battle line of virtues, he anticipates the attacking enemies, lest he be wounded by any blow of desire or even of distrust. For thus he goes forth to meet the enemies armed with the weapons of vices, and he withstands their attack. According to this sense, Saint David says: I will pursue my enemies, and will apprehend them, etc.
He despises fear, nor does he yield to the sword. However many threats he may make with great terror, so that they desire to instill fear in their enemies, let him speak: The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the defender of my life: of whom shall I be afraid, when my adversaries approach me with ill intent, to devour my flesh? Therefore, since I hope in the salvation of the light of God: If enemies set up camp against me, my heart shall not fear. And if the battle rises against me, I will not yield with the sword, with which I willingly desire to undergo death for Christ.
The quiver will sound the super ipsum, the spear and shield will vibrate. Above the exterior and corporeal man, as the prophet says: And beneath me my dullness is disturbed: we believe the soul is like a castle, where each of the saints, as it were, has the arrows of God's eloquence within his inner self, which he brings forth to guard against, or which he brings forth through frequent correction, like piercing weapons, to strike surely with their blows those who deserve to be wounded unto salvation. Super ipsum, inquam, eloquiorum Dei resonat pharetra, quod tamen in commotione sit ambulantis. Ubi intelligitur, quod is recte psallat et corripiat delinquentes,cujus in anteriora quotidie profectus est sanctitatis, sic enim apostolus magnus, et potens equus Domini ait: Unum autem quidem quae retro sunt obliviscens, ad ea vero quae in ante sunt extendens. Sive ut brevius et manifestius dicam: Pharetra haec, locus est cordis, in quo sermonum Dei sagittae conditae sunt, et repositae. And notably, the Lord says about it, that is, the horse, to sound this quiver, which is above its outward man, the quiver of its heart filled with divine words, it reigns, as the warrior of the Lord, and strong in battle, it proclaims the word with great power. Above this horse, however, the spear and shield are wielded. The spear is the watchful virtue of the soul, or steadfastness, which rebukes sinners, or mortifies vices in itself to be pierced. The shield, indeed, is the shield of faith, in which all the fiery darts of the wicked one can be extinguished. And these, due to the constant use of warfare, are said to be wielded, which are certainly prepared in exercise. For concerning such gleaming weapons it is said thus: Your darts shall go into the light, into the splendor of the brightness of your years.
He fervently and eagerly drinks in the earth. Burning with faith in the spirit, and raging like the Savior, who, when he spiritually raises the dead in vices, rages in the spirit. Thus here, I say, he rages against his enemies, whether vices or even open persecutors: and thus he drinks in his own earth, as he transforms it from a carnal way of life to a spiritual one. So, raging and becoming very angry with himself, he drinks it in, as I said, so that he may transmit it into the desire of his own spirit, where that hidden man of the heart is in incorruptibility, the peace and modesty of the spirit, which is rich in the sight of God.
And he does not think that the sound of the trumpet is a clang. He is endowed with such great courage that he fears no terror of his adversaries, since he is prepared for every sound of his provoking enemies.
When he hears the trumpet sound, he says, 'Well done.' From afar he smells war, the encouragement of leaders, and the cry of the army. And when he hears the Gospel being proclaimed with a loud voice, he rejoices and exults, because 'Well done' signifies this. When he hears the examples of the most courageous men who undertake to teach the Scriptures on the Lord's Day, and also the unanimous voice of the whole congregation of the Church, which is called the army of God, he says, 'Well done' and he hears the joy with the encouragement of leaders, and even the cry of the army. But this howl was signified in this place when warriors standing in battle, about to fight, encourage each other. But someone says: How is it possible that the same thing can be understood in a good or bad way through a figure, as we have done here, by saying that this horse is said through allegory, and that it can feel both good and bad? To this I respond, where a noun is placed in Scriptures without an epistasis, as for example, only a mountain, and it is not added that it is called Mount Zion, or a corrupted mountain, I do not think it is unreasonable that the interpretation of the same thing is free in both directions. But where, with an epitasis, as a lion from the tribe of Judah, or certainly, sits in ambush like a lion: there either Christ is understood without any delay, or the devil is our adversary. And if you please, let us give an example, where in the Gospel the Lord says to His disciples about a tree: If you indeed have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this tree, 'Uproot and transplant into the sea,' and it will obey you. Where some understood that the faith of believers uproots the enemy and removes it from the Church, the land of Judea and confession, and transfers it to the sea of peoples, that is, to the impious men; and those evil spirits in the Gospel can signify this very thing, who were precipitated into the sea with unclean men and sinners, indicated by the name of swine. But when they wanted to signify the same tree as the Lord, they interpreted it in this way: that by the preaching of the apostles, who received the grace of Christ and the power of faith, Christ the Lord, as it were, would be uprooted from that Jewish people in which he was held as the root of the race, and would be transplanted into the sea of the Gentiles, just as the Lord himself spoke to the Jews, saying: The kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation producing its fruits.
Does the hawk gain strength through your wisdom, spreading its wings toward the south? It follows that we should understand this hawk in a good way, namely as holy, who has received wisdom through conversion, so that it may cease to prey and seize, and may also cease to live on the flesh of worldly desires. And whoever has cast off the old man's clothes in baptism, being renewed, is like the youth of the eagle, especially when having the promise of present and future life, which is signified in its wings, it turns towards the south, where the warmth of faith is, and where it has come to know Christ: as the prophet had foretold, saying: God will come from the south, and the Holy One from the shady and dark mountain. For we know that Bethlehem, the city of the Lord, is located for those who look to the south, that is, in the south. And according to the tropics of understanding, the groom invites this warm wind so that the spices of grace may fervently boil, saying: Arise, north wind, and come, south wind, blow upon my garden, and let its fragrances flow. Therefore, when it is said, spreading its wings to the south, others have said that with outstretched feathers, it remains motionless and gazes towards the south. Therefore, he speaks of the intention of perseverance of the one who, living by the warmth of faith and guided by the two Testaments, contemplates the splendor of eternal blessedness.
Will the eagle be lifted up according to your command? Sometimes the eagle is spoken of in a favorable way, and in reference to God Himself, as Moses says: As the eagle protects its nest and trusts in its young, as we mentioned above. But here the opposing power of the eagle is said to be from God, which, by God's permission, is lifted up in pride and has great power, as the prophet says: And it will be like an eagle over the house of God. The prophets in many places of their Scriptures also mark him as the most proud, that is, the devil: and this is why he is called great by them, because he is lifted up swelling over the mountains of the north and sets his throne above the stars of heaven, desiring to equal the Most High.
And in difficult places he will place his nest. In every great and lofty place of this world, he establishes a dwelling for himself, so that in them he may, as a stern lord and a fierce and powerful king, abide.
In rocks it remains. In the highest places, namely the harsh ones, it remains and dwells in malice for the strong.
And he dwells among the rugged rocks. The rugged rocks are understood as blasphemers, who have hearts that are excessively hard and untamed, and who depend on the weight of their sins, leaning towards their own ruin.
And on inaccessible cliffs. Truly, the cliffs are tall and men stretched out high, with excessive pride in their own hearts; no one should approach their pride, which is like a special evil to themselves, above all others.
Hence, he considers food. Especially those whom we have described as excessively proud, whom we call heretics, or Jews, or the wise of the world, that is, philosophers; he also captures the lost ones, when their errors trap them in his snare, according to the prophet who says the same about the devil: His food is chosen.
And from afar his eyes look out. God called the mind of our adversary, keen and ever watchful, the eyes, in order to investigate the strength of the holy ones fighting, for by a subtle intention the mind perceives from afar. By this, he also foresees with shrewd suspicion the future exercises of evil. It is not the spaces of places that are to be understood, but rather the beginnings of human disposition to live rightly. This, I say, from afar, observes a subtle spirit, which is certainly from the very beginnings, and has a too mobile insight into every evil, so that there, before the attempts of man are at least strengthened in something, it suppresses and extinguishes the budding good things, and makes the destroyed man reek of sin.
Her chicks lick its blood, and wherever there is a corpse, they immediately appear. Her chicks are her children, her companions, who in their conspiracy against God have plotted wickedness with her in tyranny. Therefore, fueled by the poison of envy, they thirstily lick the blood of human beings. And when it says, wherever there is a corpse, they immediately appear, others have said, and wherever there is a corpse, they are immediately found: whether this is said of the author of evil or of its minions, wherever it is present, sin is immediately born, which festers in the soul just as a wound does in the body.
And the Lord added, and spoke to Job: Does he who contends with God, easily find rest? Surely he who argues with God should answer Him. The entire dispute that is woven throughout the earlier part of this book is explained here by the Lord, when He says: Does he who contends with God. Hence it appears that he spoke against God with a certain audacity of presumption stemming from confidence in his own good conscience, but he did not blaspheme God, as some might think. And if she said anything more harshly, looking to the same thing, to which God is just: looking to the tenor of God's justice, she spoke not to blaspheme God, from whom she requires him according to his just judgment, as if she restrains him and says that he should spare or declare him unjust. Therefore, she feels that he judges himself unjustly, considering him around himself, even though she knows him to be just. Therefore, having received reasoning from God, in these words that she spoke, that certainly he himself would govern and rule over all that he had created, from whom also absolutely nothing unjust would be done, she was silent, convicted as is clearly demonstrated here. But she is admonished and compelled by the Lord, so that because she contends against him and tries to argue with him, she herself should respond to the questions. And the writer of this book said:
But Job, in answering the Lord, said: What can I reply, having spoken lightly? And blessed Job, recognizing that he spoke lightly and not thoroughly, said that he is unable to fully respond to God. This is why he desires to restrain himself in silence, as he says:
I will put my hand on my mouth. I have spoken once, which I wish I had not said, and I will not add any more. Because he has spoken one thing and another, by which he could harm. Those things, I believe, to be, as I have previously understood, which he said as follows: My soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death: and if he scourges, let him kill once, and let him not laugh at the punishments of the innocent.