Homily 62, on Psalm 82 (Alternate Series)
Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin).
O God, who shall be like you? None shall be like you. Do not keep silent, nor be restrained, O God. It is a man of the Church who speaks, from whose belly flow rivers of living water. For he sees that the harvest is great and the laborers few: a vast multitude of believers, and only a modest teaching from the masters; many heretics, many adversaries, and few warriors to do battle for Christ. Do not keep silent, nor be restrained, O God. Why this?
For behold, your enemies have made a din. The heretics speak out, and the men of the Church keep silent; they make a noise, and we are quiet; they blaspheme, and we do not bark back. For behold, your enemies have made a din. Beautifully did he say, they have made a din: for it is not speech adorned for building up, but only a disordered clamor for tearing down. And those who hate you have lifted up their head. So great is the multitude of the heretics, and so small the number of those who believe in you.
Against your people they have devised a malicious plan. This they speak, that they may snatch away from your Church. They have plotted against your holy ones. Each day they think of nothing else, save how they may deceive the men of the Church and trip them up.
They have said, Come, let us destroy them out of the nation. I see a strange thing. So great is the multitude of the heretics, and such the diversity of their teachings, that their opinions differ among themselves, and yet they agree in this alone — in their hatred of us. For just as Herod and Pilate were enemies, and, acting against Christ, they made peace, and their concord was worse than their enmity had been; so these too fall out wickedly and league together yet more wickedly.
Against your covenant they have made their arrangements. You spoke through the prophets; and they through Manichaeus, Marcion, Arius, and Valentinus. The tents of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites. Since once we have begun, leaving behind the lowliness of the literal history, to raise our understanding to a higher manner of the spiritual meaning's exposition... For the history is a simple one, in which the Jewish people speaks against the other nations that were fighting against it. But whatever was done, was done as a type of us. Israel was attacked, and its victory profited us. Let us see, then, who they are that fight against the Church. The tents of the Edomites. The Edomites are interpreted as "earthly." Beautifully did he say, tents: for they have no foundations nor houses, but tents, seats forever unstable. And of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites are interpreted as "as if hearing." Beautifully did he say, as if hearing: for they do not hear God, but pass on by.
Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon. Each single name holds its single sacred meaning: for as many words, so many mysteries. Moab, which is interpreted, "from the father": for they are not in the father, but from the father, because they have forsaken their former father. And the Hagarenes, who are interpreted "proselytes" and "newcomers," who were formerly citizens and afterward became strangers: for they are not of the household, but are aliens, seeing that they assail the house of the father. Gebal, which is interpreted "empty valley." They are not of the mountains, but of the valley: for they have no taste for the things above, but for the things below; they are not of heaven, but wholly of the earth. Therefore he said, empty valley, because there is also a valley that is not empty: for whoever is humble, and casts himself down for Christ's sake, that one is a valley and a plain — not empty, but good. Ammon, and Amalek. Ammon indeed is interpreted "a false people." Therefore it is said of the heretics, a false people: for they do not follow him who says "I am the truth," but they follow him who is the prince of lying. And Amalek, who is interpreted "licking": for they suffer nothing to remain standing in the Church, but lick up all its foundations. They do not eat the words of the Scriptures, but lick the earth like a serpent.
And the foreigners with those who dwell in Tyre. In place of what we have as "foreigners," in the Hebrew is written Philistim, which is interpreted "the cup of the draught," because they are made drunk from the cup of Babylon, as Jeremiah says: "The golden cup of Babylon, making all the earth drunk." See what he says, the golden cup of Babylon. Babylon is interpreted "confusion"; but the golden cup is the doctrines of the philosophers and the eloquence of the orators. For who has not been led astray by the philosophers? Who has not been seduced by the orators of this world? A golden cup they have — outwardly the splendor of eloquence; and inwardly poisons are stored, which could not be hidden unless they were concealed under the appearance of gold. You see indeed the honey of eloquence, and you do not suspect the deadly poisons. The foreigners with those who dwell in Tyre. Tyre is interpreted "narrowness." For truly there is narrowness there, and not the breadth which is Christ, as the Apostle also says to the Corinthians: "You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels."
For Assur also came with them. They went before, and he follows. Let us see who this is that follows. Assur indeed is interpreted "the devil": truly so, because he is both the enemy and the avenger, as is written in the eighth psalm, "That you may destroy the enemy and the defender." He himself makes us sin, and he himself accuses us for punishment. For Assur came together with them. They have the devil as their prince, they have him as their emperor: not Josiah the righteous king rules over them, but the Assyrian. They became a help to the sons of Lot. Lot is interpreted "turning aside," which is understood, from God, like the Jewish people: because all the heretics agree with the Jews in blasphemies.
There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out: for it is a long task to run through them one by one. For who could easily say, Do to them as to Midian and Sisera, as to Jabin at the torrent of Kishon. They perished at Endor, they became like the dung of the earth. Make their princes like Oreb and Zeb and Zebee and Salmana: all their princes who said, Let us possess for ourselves as an inheritance the sanctuary of God? They thought themselves to be men of the Church, and claimed the Church for themselves.
My God, set them like a wheel. Let them not be stable, but forever uncertain: that they may have no seat, and be forever rolled about unstably. For just as a wheel is not of itself stable, so also the heretics do not stand firm in their opinion, but forever change their doctrines. Like stubble before the face of the wind. Eleven punishments he asks against them, because they have denied the mysteries of the eleven apostles. But let the prudent reader say: How will you divide one verse into two? And you do violence to the Scripture: you say eleven apostles, when we know that the Lord and Savior had twelve disciples. For this reason, then, we set down the number eleven, because Judas the traitor, who had been the twelfth, departed from the number. My God, set them like a wheel. You have one plague: count therefore more carefully the rest that follow. Like stubble before the face of the wind: behold the second. Like fire which burns a forest: behold the third. Like a flame burning the mountains: the fourth. So will you pursue them in your tempest: the fifth. And in your anger you will confound them: the sixth. Fill their faces with shame: the seventh. And let them seek your name, O Lord: the eighth. Let them be ashamed and troubled forever and ever: the ninth. And let them be confounded and perish: the tenth. And let them know that your name is Lord: the eleventh. You alone are the Most High over all the earth.
Thus far it is wrath: what follows is now mercy. And in your anger you will trouble them. He did not say, kill, but, trouble them, that they may return to you: behold the sixth. Fill their faces with shame: not with punishment, lest, shut out by death, they be unable to return to the Lord. Fill their faces with shame, not with punishment. Why then do you not kill them? The divine word explains: That they may seek your name, O Lord. For if they seek, they will also find. Those who have been led astray by the heretics will be turned back to the Lord: behold the seventh. Let them be confounded and perish. He who blushes for his sins is next to being without sin: behold the eighth. Let the prudent reader say: This is contrary to the interpretation you have given. And let them perish. For those who are confounded to this end, that they may be saved — how shall they perish? Let them perish, let them perish, he says, the heretics, and let the men of the Church be saved. It is as if you were to say, Let this adulterer perish — not that you wish the adulterer to perish, but that the adultery may perish in him; nor, when the adulterer is saved, is the adulterer saved, but the righteous and chaste man. That you may know this to be the meaning we have stated, the Holy Spirit himself speaks thus: Let them be confounded and perish. How let them perish? That they may know that your name is Lord. Let them perish in error, let them be saved in the truth. You alone are the Most High in all the earth. Not the conventicles of the heretics, not the aeons of Valentinus and his innumerable days, not Basilides who asserts three hundred and sixty-five gods; not, he says, the innumerable multitude of false gods, but you alone are the Most High in all the earth. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.