1 When thou sittest to eate with a ruler, consider diligently what is before thee,
Origen of Alexandria · AD 253 What therefore is "the table of the powerful one," except the mind of that one who says, "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me"; and "when I am weak, then I am strong"? On this "clean table of the powerful one," that is, in his heart, in his mind is offered "a loaf" to the Lord.
Jerome · AD 420 Divine Scripture commands that, when we have been invited to a rich man's banquet, we should with understanding put forth our hand to the dishes. And so for us too the banquet of Scriptures has been set out as a rich man's feast. We have come into a meadow; it has very many flowers: here the rose is red, there the lilies gleam white, there are flowers of every kind.
Bede · AD 735 When you sit down to eat with a ruler, etc. All things are said through allegory: When you sit down to read with a teacher, to be refreshed by the bread of the word, diligently understand what is written, and maintain the discernment of sacred reading in your speech, if, however, you are such a one and so learned that you have in your power your soul, and not as an unlearned on…
2 And put the knife to thy throte, if thou be a man giuen to the appetite.
3 Be not desirous of his deintie meates: for it is a deceiuable meate.
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 There is no limit to epicurism among men. For it has driven them to sweetmeats, and honey-cakes, and sugar-plums; inventing a multitude of desserts, hunting after all manner of dishes. A man like this seems to me to be all jaw, and nothing else. "Desire not," says the Scripture, "rich men's dainties;" for they belong to a false and base life.
Bede · AD 735 Do not desire his delicacies, etc. Which is to say openly, do not desire to listen to the words of him who is accustomed to deceive his listeners with the sweetness of false doctrines.
4 Trauaile not too much to be rich: but cease from thy wisdome.
Bede · AD 735 Do not labor to be rich. He signifies the riches of knowledge, which we are forbidden to seek beyond the measure of our capacity.
5 Wilt thou cast thine eyes vpon it, which is nothing? for riches taketh her to her wings, as an eagle, and flyeth into the heauen.
Bede · AD 735 Do not lift your eyes to riches, etc. Do not lift your mind to search the secrets of divinity, which you cannot penetrate. For these are open only to the heavenly citizens.
6 Eate thou not the bread of him that hath an euil eye, neither desire his deintie meates.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 Wise, therefore, was he who forbids us even to dine in company with an envious man, and in mentioning this companionship at table, he implies a reference to all other social contacts as well.
Bede · AD 735 Do not eat with an envious man, etc. Do not speak of Scriptures with a heretic, because he envies human salvation, preferring to deceive rather than correct; for just as a soothsayer and dream interpreter considers things he does not know, so a heretic presumes to interpret in the Scriptures as he pleases, things he does not understand.
7 For as though he thought it in his heart, so will hee say vnto thee, Eate and drinke: but his heart is not with thee.
Bede · AD 735 Eat and drink, he will say to you, etc. He says, Learn securely and do what I teach, while he himself does not have certain faith in what he teaches, knowing he has invented from his heart what he would teach.
8 Thou shalt vomit thy morsels that thou hast eaten, and thou shalt lose thy sweete wordes.
Bede · AD 735 The food you have eaten you will vomit, etc. The perverse thoughts you had learned from heretics, you must either abandon by correction through repentance, or after death be compelled to suffer punishment for them, and lose the words of confession, by which, while they preached, you thought you should humbly favor them.
9 Speake not in the eares of a foole: for hee will despise the wisdome of thy wordes.
Bede · AD 735 Do not speak in the ears of fools, etc. This is similar to that of the Gospel, Do not give what is holy to dogs, nor cast your pearls before swine, etc. (Matthew 7:6). Just as he previously admonished not to listen to the doctrines of heretics, so now he urges not to insert the secrets of truth into impure men, seduced by the love of vain glory.
10 Remooue not the ancient boundes, and enter not into the fieldes of the fatherlesse.
Bede · AD 735 Do not touch the boundaries of the little ones, etc. He calls the Lord the near one of the little ones and orphans because, while in the flesh, he deigned to be a companion in faith more to the poor than the rich. Otherwise, the same Lord is of all, rich to all who call upon him.
11 For he that redeemeth them, is mightie: he will defend their cause against thee.
Commodian · AD 250 Receive into thy ears the teaching of the great Solomon: God hates the poor man to be a pleader on high. [Prov. 23:11] Therefore submit thyself, and give honour to Him that is powerful; for the soft speech-thou knowest the proverb-melts. [Prov. 15:1] One is conquered by service, even although there be an ancient anger.
12 Apply thine heart to instruction, and thine eares to the wordes of knowledge.
13 Withhold not correction from the childe: if thou smite him with the rodde, he shall not die.
Basil of Caesarea · AD 379 As small children who are negligent in learning become more attentive and obedient after being punished by their teacher or tutor, and as they do not listen before the lash, but, after feeling the pain of a beating, hear and respond as though their ears were just recently opened, improving also in memory, so likewise with those who neglect divine doctrine and spurn the commandm…
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 If the evil will is always to be left to its own freedom, why are careless shepherds rebuked, and why is it said to them, "The wandering sheep you have not called back, that which was lost you have not sought"?
Caesarius of Arles · AD 542 When someone presumes to commit a sin against God, he ought to suffer a monastic penance. This should be done in a kind and devout spirit, so that through rebuke he may be corrected in this life in such a way that he may not perish in the future. For every sin which is not corrected in this world will be punished in the future life.
14 Thou shalt smite him with the rodde, and shalt deliuer his soule from hell.
15 My sonne, if thine heart be wise, mine heart shall reioyce, and I also.
16 And my reynes shall reioyce, when thy lips speake righteous things.
17 Let not thine heart bee enuious against sinners: but let it bee in the feare of the Lord continually.
Bede · AD 735 Do not let your heart envy sinners, etc. If throughout the whole day, that is, the whole time you dwell in the light of this world, you strive both to avoid the examples of sinners and to fear the Lord, you will have the hope of blessed reward at the last, that is, when you reach the end of this life, with him also attesting, who said: Be faithful unto death, and I will give yo…
18 For surely there is an ende, and thy hope shall not be cut off.
19 O thou my sonne, heare, and bee wise, and guide thine heart in the way.
20 Keepe not company with drunkards, nor with gluttons.
Bede · AD 735 Do not be among winebibbers, etc. For to bring meats to be eaten, is in conversation of derogation, to repeatedly mention the vices of neighbors, about whose punishment it is immediately added:
21 For the drunkard and the glutton shall bee poore, and the sleeper shalbe clothed with ragges.
Bede · AD 735 And dressed in rags will be the sluggard. For his death will find him despicable and devoid of all good works, as his languor occupied him here in seeking the crimes of another's life through slander.
22 Obey thy father that hath begotten thee, and despise not thy mother when she is olde.
Evagrius Ponticus · AD 399 As the ancient saying goes, soul is the mother of the mind, because it is the soul which leads the mind to enlightenment by means of practical virtues.
23 Bye the trueth, but sell it not: likewise wisdome, and instruction, and vnderstanding.
24 The father of the righteous shall greatly reioyce, and hee that begetteth a wise childe, shall haue ioy of him.
25 Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall reioyce.
Bede · AD 735 Let your father and mother rejoice, etc. Let God the Father rejoice over your righteousness; let the Church, your mother, also rejoice; and let the priest who regenerated you through the grace of baptism, and who educated you from childhood, rejoice in your good works.
26 My sonne, giue mee thine heart, and let thine eyes delite in my wayes.
Augustine of Hippo · AD 430 If you don't give yourself, you will lose yourself. Charity herself speaks through wisdom and tells you something to save you from panicking at being told, "Give yourself." If anyone wanted to sell you a farm he would say to you, "Give me your gold," and if it was something else, "Give me your coppers," "Give me your silver." Now listen to what charity says to you, speaking thr…
27 For a whore is as a deepe ditche, and a strange woman is as a narrowe pitte.
John Chrysostom · AD 407 He who gives to harlots is ridiculous and shameful, and will have many quarrels, and brief pleasure; or rather, not even brief, because, give what he will to the women his mistresses, they will not thank him for it; for, "The house of a stranger is a cask with holes." Besides, that sort of persons is impudent, and Solomon hath compared their love to the grave; and then only do…
28 Also she lyeth in wait as for a praye, and she increaseth the transgressers among men.
29 To whome is woe? to whome is sorowe? to whom is strife? to whom is murmuring? to whom are woundes without cause? and to whome is the rednesse of the eyes?
Clement of Alexandria · AD 215 By the mention of redness of eyes—a sign of death—it is made clear that the wine-bibber is already dead to the Word and to reason. It declares his death to the Lord. If one forgets the motives that prompt him to seek the true life, he is dragged down to corruption.
Nilus of Sinai · AD 451 Since you are the presbyters and deacons of Christ, you ought always to be sober, both among yourselves and among others, so that you may be able to warn the unruly. Now the Scripture says, "The men in power are passionate.
Bede · AD 735 To whom wounds without cause? etc. Wounds without cause, because many, filled beyond measure with wine, have received wounds in their limbs out of fear, which they have endured for no cause; weakening of the eyes, because the immoderate drink of wine produces darkness to many physical sights and blindness of inner senses.
30 Euen to them that tarie long at the wine, to them that goe, and seeke mixt wine.
Bede · AD 735 For those who tarry long over wine and go to seek mixed wine, etc. Symbol is a Greek name, and it means conference. There is a conference of words, as is usual in councils; there is also one of money or other things, as the present place teaches. Therefore, those who tarry long over wine indulge in speaking about the disgrace of another's life.
31 Looke not thou vpon the wine, when it is red, and when it sheweth his colour in the cup, or goeth downe pleasantly.
Bonaventure · AD 1257 The devil draws man to the concupiscence of the flesh, to the concupiscence of the eyes, and to the pride of life. The concupiscence of the eyes, which is the fuel of concupiscence and pride, makes men strong, because men endure many things in order to acquire temporal goods. In wine, which makes a man drunk and renders him bold, is signified the concupiscence of the eyes.
32 In the ende thereof it will bite like a serpent, and hurt like a cockatrise.
33 Thine eyes shall looke vpon strange women, and thine heart shall speake lewde things.
Bede · AD 735 Your eyes will see strange women, etc. It is a customary and almost natural vice to follow feminine lust after the poison of drunkenness spreads in the heart, accompanied by wickedness and foulness of words.
34 And thou shalt bee as one that sleepeth in the middes of the sea, and as hee that sleepeth in the toppe of the maste.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 For he sleeps in the midst of the sea who, placed among the temptations of this world, neglects to look out for the motions of vices that rush in upon him like impending heaps of waves. And the steersman, as it were, lets go the rudder when the mind loses the earnestness of solicitude for guiding the ship of the body.
Bede · AD 735 And you will be like one sleeping in the midst of the sea, etc. He sleeps in the midst of the sea, who, placed in the temptations of this world, neglects to foresee the movements of impending vices, as if neglecting the impending heaps of waves, and like a sleeping helmsman loses the rudder, when the mind, to govern the ship of the body, loses its diligence.
35 They haue stricken mee, shalt thou say, but I was not sicke: they haue beaten mee, but I knew not, when I awoke: therefore will I seeke it yet still.
Gregory the Dialogist · AD 604 Whence, also, the utterance of one that is stricken and yet sleeps is expressed by Solomon, who says, "They have beaten thee, and I was not pained; they have dragged me, and I felt it not.
Bede · AD 735 And you will say, They struck me, but I was not hurt, etc. The voice of one beaten and sleeping is expressed. The mind, indeed, sleeping from the care of diligence, is struck and does not hurt, because just as it does not foresee impending evils, so it also does not recognize what it has committed.