Chapter XLI.
Not as if God cruelly awakens him. For who can resist my face, and who has given to me that I should repay him? All things under heaven are mine. Therefore, God does not awaken this enemy as if cruel, who desires to punish him: or destroy him by the arrangement of any of the saints: whose radiant nature rather competes with eternal goodness: but God is said to awaken Leviathan in this way, so that he may manifest to others what kind of creature he is, whom he allows to insult for a longer time, as if Pharaoh, with long impunity. For with this most just judgment of his, God allows two things to happen: either for the exercise and testing of the saints, or for the punishment of the wicked. For who can resist my face? When it seems that I have said this, let every creature yield and tremble before the mere sight of the majesty of God. Who gave something to me so that I should repay him? Everything under heaven is mine. For, he says, I have not received authority from anyone, which perhaps at some point I did not have: so that I may give thanks to him as if for this favor, or render something in return to him. According to this meaning, the Apostle also speaks: 'Or who has given to him and it will be repaid to him?' Wherein these words, God's presence is always shown.
I will not spare him with powerful words and composed entreaties. Perhaps we can understand this about the devil, about whose words he is speaking here: even though he is rebellious against God and obstinate, he still feels fear towards his creator, and though he may be forgetful of his condition, he pretends to implore his Lord as a worthless servant, at least when compelled.
Who will reveal the face of his garment? Here, Job says that the face of the devil is veiled in this garment, because he transforms himself into an angel of light. But the face is revealed by the Lord, when the arts of his wickedness are uncovered.
And who will enter into the midst of his mouth? This is the mouth of the devil, unceasing blasphemy can be understood, which must be blocked and stopped by God, when the word of the Lord has pierced it. Whether someone will enter into the midst of his mouth? it can be understood as the mouth of the devil, hell: to which the Savior descended, in order to free the people devoured by the devil. And therefore, because it was to happen in time, he said: Who will enter into the midst of his mouth?
Who will open the gates of his face? The Lord says that he will reveal the hidden and greatly secret strength of the hypocrisy of the devil. He openly manifested this in his passion and on the cross, when he triumphed with little confidence when he was led by his princes and powers, as the Son of God.
I fear the circle of his teeth. He calls this voracious and insatiable enemy, who, like a ravenous beast, consumes everything with his teeth, and therefore I fear and tremble at the circle of his teeth, because they are ready to devour.
The body of the devil, and all his companions and unclean spirits, must be understood as being so joined together by such agreement and conspiracy that they are united to him by an indissoluble connection. They are also called by the allegorical term 'scales', because they are so closely compacted and adhere to one another, that they have no opening through which to breathe towards God, so that, through their connection with them, they may by no means be relaxed into the health of repentance. But the fact that wicked demons, the impious ministers of the devil, are compared to shields, the Lord signifies by their name, because they are exceedingly stubborn and obstinately rebellious, and their solid and everlasting resistance against God is like the pounding of battering rams. The devil is likened to an old edition of the emerald stone, which is rough in nature and smooths other things by rubbing against them, but itself does not cease to be rough, and crushes everything, yet does not feel any diminution of itself.
His sneeze is like the splendor of fire, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the dawn. Or as others have said: In his sneeze, the sun shines forth, and his eyes are like the appearance of Lucifer. His sneeze expels the filth of the brain and purifies the vices conceived within. Therefore, the devil, who is entirely filthy and foul, appears in this light, transforming himself into an angel of wickedness, operating and pouring out his filth for the destruction of humanity with pleasure. And from envy, that is, from the source of all evils, he stirs up and produces his poisons. But the eyes of the devil are false prophets, of whom the holy Isaiah says, when he spoke to the sinful people, saying about God: Shut your eyes: they speak by his instigation, what seems to be close to the light of truth. Just as eyelids are bright in the morning, even though they possess no light from God. For even if they seem to display the beginning of light in themselves, which arises from the leaven of hypocrisy, they still cover the darkness of lies with the appearance of truth.
From his mouth, flames come forth like ignited torches. Just as the mouth of the Lord spoke, so too all the wicked and sacrilegious, and blasphemers, are rightly called the mouth of the devil, from which ignited torches, or, as others have said, burning torches come forth, that is, fire and the cause of punishment are suggested: and in the Apocalypse, where the ministers of the devil are described under the likeness of horses, it is said of them: Fire and smoke, and sulfur came forth from their mouth: not indeed that fire and smoke, and sulfur come forth visibly from their mouth, but the words of the blasphemer are fire and smoke, and sulfur, as the Lord says to him through the prophet: I will bring forth fire from your midst that will consume you.
Smoke comes out of his nostrils. That is, pride.
Like heated and boiling pots. Because the vapor either generates itself or is generated by obedient causes of eternal fire. The spirit of pride is demonstrated in the panting of the nostrils, in which it delights in exhaling the swelling of its soul, but it is said to be humiliated and repressed by the Lord from above: Will you put a ring in its nostrils and pierce its jaw with a hook?
His breath makes coals burn. This is his smoke from the embers and from his exhale, so that he supplies himself with eternal fire and smoke to inhale. For the Lord also says to his similar ones: Walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames that you have kindled for yourselves.
And fire will come out of his mouth. Or as others have said: Truly fire is gathered from his mouth: there the same meaning, that is, the punishments of blasphemies gathered from the mouth of the devil, come out.
In his neck, that is, his pride, his strength will dwell, and poverty will precede his face. The swelling of the neck, that is, the arrogance of the devil, is called. It is said to each one through the prophet: Your neck is an iron sinew: in which the principal evil of sin resides. Therefore, with this pride of strength, and by the words of the prophet, it is spoken, saying, I will make strength for myself, whom the Lord rebukes for this and says to him: In your wisdom, you have made strength for yourself. And again he said to him: In your negotiations, you have multiplied your strength. And also: Your heart has been lifted up in your strength. But what he said: His face will be preceded by poverty, this means that when the devil approaches, all the strength of life and soul is immediately drained, and substance is consumed.
The members of his flesh adhere to one another. They are the members of the devil, whom he previously mentioned as being of scales and bulletproof shields. But they are called the members of his flesh because they are devoted to carnal and sinful acts and cling to him as the author of evil.
He will send thunderbolts against him, and they will not be carried to another place. The order of the speaking God seems obscured in this place, where when he speaks of the devil, he suddenly changes the person, saying: He will send thunderbolts against him, and they will not be carried to another place. It is to be believed that these thunderbolts are sent by God against the devil, according to that sense where it is said: The Lord reigns from the Lord. Which we understand to be said here: God has done what God has spoken. However, the dragon devil is struck by God when he is rebuked by the fiery words of God from the holy clouds, which are certainly thunderbolts, sent and directed to a specific place, not in vain, and the devil will not be able to boast of being unpunished by them.
Their heart shall be hardened as a stone, and shall be compressed as the anvil of a blacksmith. Or, as others have said, it stands like an unwearied anvil. The heart of the devil is hard and unyielding, like the dullness and rigidity of a stone. It is compressed, or stands like an anvil, which is not moved. For an anvil is struck, but it does not move, while the blow rebounds and it remains immobile: such is the devil. For he is beaten by the reproaches of the faithful, struck by the words of the prophets, defeated by the victory of the martyrs, but he remains rigid, hard, untamed, devoted to eternal punishments.
When he has been lifted up, the angels will be afraid, and the terrified will be purified. This can be understood as said about the times of the first age. How great the evil of pride is, the holy angels were able to know even then, when the presumptuous one of tyranny was thrown down from the citadel of heaven: when also for that reason, by merit of the truth in which he had not stood, they stood: and in this they are to be believed to have become blessed, so that they became most certain that the falling away of any sin should never be feared by themselves. Therefore, what has been said, namely that with the devil removed, the angels will fear and, terrified, will be cleansed, should not be understood in such a way that, in order to avoid the sin of pride, they will become more amendable, terrified by the example of such a great damnation, since it is certainly clear that they will not be blessed at all if they have to be more careful not to sin. For avoiding sin or resisting sin pertains to the penal miseries of this world, not to the glory of the future age. But I think that those men should understand, who have arrived at the fellowship of angels, that they will be cleansed, as it were new angels, when the devil has been condemned, being terrified by seeing what kind of enemy and what kind of punishments of dreadful damnation they have escaped. However, they will be cleansed, that is, they will be made purer for God, with the perception of such great consolation of divine blessing around them. Also, what has been said, being terrified, or what has been written, they will fear, does not deviate from the meaning, so that the reasonable creature may marvel at every from of blessing and judgement of its Creator, not with penal, but with honorable fear. And indeed, what greater purification or cleansing can there be before God for a human, as for an angelic being, than to always offer every good thing of its most certain security and eternal glory to the praise of its creator with both exultation (for to whom it is offered is holy) and trembling (for to whom it is offered is God)?
When he is apprehended with a sword, he will not be able to stand, neither with a spear, nor with a breastplate. But others have more plainly translated, saying: If spears meet him, they will do nothing to him: that is, he will not be able to be corrected by any metals of terrors and threats. However, with a spear and breastplate, those who are clad in the armor of justice, armed with the right hand of holy works, endeavor to resist. But they will not be able to punish or conquer him, because he is so strong and wicked that he despises those who oppose him, and does not desire to be turned back. Therefore, whatever strength of spirit there is in the holy ones, is called by the name of iron. Whatever virtues there are also, are considered with the splendor or enduring nature of bronze.
For it will regard iron as if it were chaff, and wood as rotten bronze. Such is the extent to which pride cloaks itself in virtue, that it considers all these weapons taken up against it as nothing, and instead works for itself deeds similar to piles of chaff and unfruitful wood, and old and decaying things that must be consumed by an unquenchable fire.
The man will not be fleeing from the archer. Although he may have a quiver full of his heart's reproaches, like piercing arrows, yet he, being hard and excessively iron-like, cannot be penetrated by them. And therefore, not feeling the wounds of compunction, he is not driven away by this archer. However, others have said: He is not wounded by the air arrow. The incorruptible word of God is compared to a bronze arrow, which the devil could never be wounded by for repentance: according to the hardness of his heart, he treasures up for himself wrath on the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
They were turned into stones for the slingshot. The slingshot can be understood as any of the saints who are upheld by the hand of the Lord. Through these saints, therefore, the impious one forcefully hurls his harsh, strong, and rough words like stones, so that when struck by them, he may give honor to God. But because he is possessed by singular malice, he turns these very words into straw, so that while considering them worthless, they become like straw to him, which ignites the smoking balls of Tartarean fire. What others have said in the same sense: Consider stones thrown by a sling as hay.
He will consider it like straw, but a divine word, namely heavy, will crush and break the immense hardness of his impiety, so that he may be weakened by the persecution of the saints, and he will consider it like straw; for when he is overwhelmed by malice, he will not feel the weight of the blows from above, because his heart has become like stone and like an unyielding anvil, which, although excessively pounded, is never broken.
And he will deride the trembling spear. Or, as others have said, the trembling speech. He will not only not fear, but also deride the strong emission of any holy person, by the strength of their spirit and their virtue, whether it be the same speech or the same throw. God speaks about all this in various ways and examples about the devil, in order to show to human beings how much evil it is, how powerful it is, and how utterly irredeemable it is.
Under this same are the rays of the sun, and he will spread for himself gold like clay. The sun of justice is Christ, God, in whose wings is healing. Therefore, these rays, that is, the saints who are the children of his light, are held captive and subject to this prince of darkness in the fall of Adam's sin, while he already makes his own those redeemed through Christ from their capital offenses, like captives and slaves, and subjects and subdues them to himself. And even those angels whom the devil drew with him can be understood as these the rays of the sun of whom it is said in the Apocalypse: And he drew with him the third part of the stars to the earth. They are the rays of the sun who, by departing from God, the true light, became darkness, and the princes of darkness. Therefore, those who are under him are considered to be ruled by and subjects of the Devil. And gold, according to the meaning we mentioned earlier, represents the rays of the sun, because under the name of gold, both precious and evil things are understood: he tramples them underfoot like mud, making them subject to sins, dirty and worthless. They are said to reside in those secret places and hidden corners of the earth where gold is found. And for this reason, in a spiritual sense, I believe this metaphor is preserved, because this red dragon, from the gold of the good things which he had cast aside, will make his bedding, which represents all the spiritual riches of this world, that is, the holiness of good people, justice, and other virtues, as if he has them under him, when he will have transformed them into a vast mass of sins while they sleep in faith.
It will cause to boil like a pot of the deep sea, and it will set to simmer like when ointments boil. This sea, according to allegorical understanding, we have learned to be dark and obscure, and excessively blind with foolishness, which the devil ignites with carnal desires, so that it boils with a love for earthly things. But if we understand the ointments in a positive sense, so that we interpret them as the fervent thanks of the saints in this place, on the contrary, the devil, the inhabitant of this sea, acts in such a way that just as men burn with desire for this present life, like certain flames of kindling, he may kindle them to love this world, similar to how they fervently burn with the love of spiritual graces in the Holy Spirit. Others have said that the abyss causes boiling, just as a bronze vessel estimates the heat as a crime, and the abyss of Tartarus as a captive. In this place, I think that God has spoken in this way about the devil: because he is called the abyss by name in this world, so the devil may have defined himself, so that he may not come into memory at all, and may have been erased from divine memory. The impious meaning of this is recalled in the ninth prophecy, saying: For he has said in his heart, He will not inquire. Likewise, for he said in his heart, God hath forgotten; he hideth His face; He will never see it. And also hell, the abyss, in which the sinners of this world shall be held captive: he, as if cast down and held captive under the most harsh dominion, kept them bound with infernal chains. Therefore, rejoicing and exulting, the devil thought that he would possess all the creatures of his God, the whole world, as a king and Lord forever, not knowing that he would be forever ruled by the Lord God, and throughout all the ages: with the wicked nations destroyed from his earth, the orphaned and the lowly judged and protected so that no man, that is, the devil himself, may exalt himself upon the earth.
Afterwards, the path will shine for him. Then, repenting, he will seek to return to God, when there is no time for repentance. And I think he will call this path of his conversion, which will shine with a hardened heart and a blind late repentance: when it will be of no benefit to him after it is accepted.
He will consider the abyss as if it were aging. Or, as others have said, as a walking place. By the term abyss, we have spoken of this world above, which the devil considers as aging and old, certainly persisting in sins and not knowing that it will be freed from old sins by the coming of the Lord.
There is no power on earth that can be compared to him. No creature has such power, or such malice, and therefore in either case no one can be compared to him.
He became such that he feared nothing. By his own will of free choice, he became elated into pride, that is, he became so depraved by his own malice that he feared nothing, not even the Lord God his creator. He indeed fears as an evil servant and transgressor; but he does not have the fear of God's love within himself.
He sees everything that is exalted. He rises up into the exalted, he says, and into the highest, that is, he is elevated to the apex of his immeasurable pride, so as to place his mouth in heaven, saying: I will set my throne in heaven, and I will be like the Most High.
He is the king over all the children of pride. That is, the head and leader of all the proud ones, whom angels imitating, impious men and transgressors, became his children of pride.