Chapter 12
Wisdom confesses that the Holy Spirit is gentle in all things, who distributes the good things of God throughout the whole world.
12:1 For your incorruptible Spirit is in all things. 12:2 Therefore you correct little by little those who fall away and admonish them by reminding them of the things in which they sin, so that, being delivered from evil, they may believe in you, O Lord.
RABANUS. For the Spirit of God is gentle, for He Himself is the love of God, and the giver of all good; He Himself reproves men, because He causes those whom He fills to reprove sinners, just as Truth itself says to the disciples in the Gospel: I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away. For if I do not go away, the Paraclete will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. And when He comes, He will convict the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment. Concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me; concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you will see Me no longer; concerning judgment, because the prince of this world is judged (Jn. 16:7-11). Blessed is the man who hears the voice of this Teacher and obeys His commands, for he will be the possessor of the heavenly kingdom. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:3 For you hated the old inhabitants of your holy land 12:4 because they committed most hateful works of sorceries and unholy rites, 12:5 merciless slaughterers of children, and devouring of human flesh and blood, from the midst of a band of initiates 12:6 and perpetrators of murder against helpless parents, you willed to destroy by the hands of our fathers, 12:7 that your land, which is most precious to you of all, might receive a worthy colony of God’s children. 12:8 But even these you spared as men, and sent wasps as forerunners of your army, that they might destroy them little by little. 12:9 Not being unable in battle to give the ungodly over to the righteous, or to destroy them all at once by savage beasts or by a sharp word, 12:10 but judging little by little you gave them room for repentance, not ignoring that their race was evil and their wickedness essential, and that their understanding would never be changed forever. 12:11 For they were a cursed seed from the beginning, and, not even fearing anyone because of the sins they committed, you gave them pardon.
RABANUS. It commemorates historically how the seven nations, which had possessed the land of the Canaanites, were driven out of their places by the Lord because of the infidelity and injustices they had committed, and how the children of Israel, namely the worshippers of His name, were brought into their place. Mystically, however, those seven most wicked nations signify the universality of vices which, after the transgression of the first man, began to possess the human race, but through the grace of Christ were expelled from the hearts of the faithful, and the multitude of sacred virtues was introduced there, so that, with the evil possessors expelled from the land of souls by the Gospel of Christ, legitimate inhabitants, that is, the fruits of virtues, might produce vital shoots there by the working of the Holy Spirit. If anyone thinks it necessary to ask how it is said that the Lord sent wasps before His army into the most depraved nations, so that they might gradually exterminate them, when nowhere in the history of the Old Testament is it read that this happened physically, let him know that many things can happen there in the punishment of the wicked, which the writer of history did not care to express throughout, or rather that wasps are placed here in a figurative expression for the terrors which the Israelites, fighting against the surrounding nations, brought upon them. For the fame of those wars, which were accomplished by the power of the Lord, pierced the hearts of the fearful with the sharpest stings of terror, so that it utterly destroyed in them all strength to resist, and this lasted as long as they faithfully rendered worship to God. But after they sinned and neglected to serve God, they were delivered into the hands of their enemies, so that those who had previously been subject to them afterwards became their superiors. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:12 For who will say, “What have you done?” Or who will withstand your judgment? Or who will accuse you for destroyed nations, which you made? Or who will come before you as an avenger against unrighteous men? 12:13 For there is no God but you, to whom all things matter, that you may show that you judged not unjustly, 12:14 nor will any king or tyrant be able to look you in the face concerning those whom you punished.
RABANUS. He clearly shows by reason that in no way should it be attributed to the Creator that He disposes of His creature according to His own will. For all things are placed in His will, and there is none who can resist His will (Esther 13). Therefore, it is said by Paul: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why did you make me? Or does the potter not have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel for honor and another for dishonor? (Rom. 9:20-21) For from Him and through Him and in Him are all things: but the Lord is just in all His ways, and holy in all His works. (Ps. 145:17) [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:15 But being righteous you govern all things righteously, deeming it foreign to your power to condemn one who does not deserve to be punished. 12:16 For your strength is the source of righteousness, and your lordship over all causes you to spare all.
RABANUS. What is it that condemns him who ought not to be punished, since the condemnation itself is certainly punishment; but here he uses “punish” for “correct,” as if he were saying: He who does not accept correction will receive correction, he justly condemns to eternal fire him who is outside the power of God, that is, unworthy of divine mercy. For the power of God is the beginning of justice; because the judgment of God, whether in the correction of the elect or in the condemnation of the reprobate, is the highest perfection of equity, and therefore, through His goodness, He delays judgment for a long time so that He may have more to whom He can render benefit. For when the creature, in its pride, raises itself against its Creator, it does not wish to be subject to His dominion; indeed, just punishment avenges, lest the creation seem to prevail against its Maker. This passage can also be aptly transferred to the passion of our Redeemer, whom the Father delivered up to death for us. But it must be considered how He is just and arranges all things justly, if He condemns him who ought not to be punished. Our Mediator ought not to be punished for Himself, because He committed no contagion of guilt, but if He had not taken upon Himself an undeserved death, He would never have freed us from deserved death. Therefore, since the Father is just, punishing the Just One, He arranges all things justly, because by this He justifies all things, in that He condemns Him who is without sin for sinners, so that all the elect might rise to the summit of justice by Him who, above all, endured the condemnation of our injustice. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:17 For you show your strength when men disbelieve in the perfection of your power, and you expose the boldness of those who know it.
RABANUS. For divinity indeed shows its power in the correction of wrongdoers, so that the stubbornness of the proud may not presume upon its own strength; yet it will do so without any passion or disturbance, because God is impassible, and is never changed by any alteration, but always remaining the same, He renews, arranges, and orders all things, as the following statement proves. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:18 But you, mastering strength, judge with gentleness and govern us with great forbearance; for power is present with you whenever you will.
RABANUS. For the Almighty God judges all things with the peacefulness of His nature, but in the patient vengeance of God He seems to restrain His anger, which in fact does not exist, but human emotions, just as bodily members, are ascribed to God in figurative language, so that the divine words may be adapted to our manner and understanding. Therefore, it is also read in the Scriptures: the eyes of God, and ears, mouth, hands and feet, anger and fury, and other emotions which are diverse in men, whereas the simple nature has no division, nor does true unity admit any division, but the one and the same God always works diverse and varied works, of whom it is said through the Prophet: All things shall grow old like a garment, and as a clothing you will change them, and they shall be changed; but you are the same, and your years shall not fail (Ps. 102:25-28). For in the prophet Micah it is written in this way: The Lord shall go forth from His place, and shall come down and tread upon the high places of the earth, and the minds under it shall be consumed, and the valleys shall be cleft (Micah 1:3). Also in Isaiah: The Lord of hosts shall go forth and crush war, and will stir up the heavens, and will cry out over His enemies with strength (Isa. 42:13). Therefore, God will go forth from His place when He is compelled to break His rest and gentleness and mercy for the correction of sinners, who, though by nature He is sweet, becomes bitter through our fault, not to Himself, but to those who endure, for whom the torments are bitter. Concerning His nature, He Himself speaks otherwise through the prophet, saying: I am God and I do not change (Mal. 3:6). Therefore, it is also said through James: With whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration (James 1:17). Therefore Paul also says of Christ: Who is the image of the invisible God (Col. 1:15). And again: Now to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God (1 Tim. 1:17). And in the Gospel it is written: No one has ever seen God. The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him (Jn. 1:18). [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
Wisdom praises God's patience, because it gives sinners the opportunity for repentance and does not immediately punish.
12:19 You taught your people by such works that the righteous must be loving toward others; and you made your sons full of good hope because you give repentance for sins.
RABANUS. For by the wondrous works of the almighty God the faithful are instructed to beware of involving themselves in the sins of the wicked, and rather to strive to keep themselves untainted by such matters, and by maintaining faith and hope in the Lord, not to neglect the time granted to them for doing penance and good works; indeed, with all their strength, through love, they should try to serve their Creator. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:20 For if you punished with such great care and discernment the enemies of your children, and those deserving death, giving them time and place by which they might be delivered from wickedness, 12:21 with how much exactness did you judge your sons, to whose fathers you gave oaths and covenants of good promises?
RABANUS. The book of Exodus narrates how the Lord, through Moses and Aaron, struck the Egyptians, namely, the enemies of God’s people with ten plagues, and at times allowed them to breathe amidst these plagues, so that, having been chastised, they might be corrected. But because they persisted in wickedness, they were destroyed by divine vengeance. On the other hand, the people of God, to whom the promise was made and to their fathers, were scarcely chastised and partly comforted, as long as they endured to be educated by discipline. However, after they spurned the Gospel of Christ and crucified the Son of God, they were, in a wondrous manner, turned from friends into enemies, and therefore expelled from their own land, dispersed throughout the whole world, and finally felt harshly chastised, which previously they refused to understand when corrected by paternal kindness. We can similarly interpret this sentiment regarding the martyrs of Christ and their persecutors, because when those persecutors tortured the confessors of Christ with torments, they could, if they wished, be instructed by their patience to abandon the worship of idols and submit themselves to the Christian religion. But just as the martyrs attained eternal glory through temporal sufferings, so too did the persecutors, after the brief joys of this life, sink into eternal punishments. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
What praises its goodness is divine mercy, which is just in all its judgments.
12:22 Therefore, chastening us, while you scourge our enemies with ten thousand lashes, so that we may consider your goodness when we judge, and when judged may expect mercy.
RABANUS. This is what is written in the psalm: Many are the scourges of the sinner, but mercy will surround those who hope in the Lord (Ps. 32:10). For there is a great difference between the judgment of the elect and that of the depraved, because the Lord corrects the former to cleanse them from sins and restrain them from vices, but the latter so that they may pay the penalties for their pride and treachery, and recognize that they cannot resist the ruler of all. Indeed, happy is he who always keeps before his eyes the compassion and goodness of his judge when judging, and just as he wishes the Lord to have mercy on him, so he should not refuse to have mercy on others, because judgment will be without mercy for him who does not show mercy. For blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy (Matt. 5:7). [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:23 Therefore also those who lived in the foolishness of life as unrighteous men you tormented through their own abominations; 12:24 for they wandered farther along the ways of error, taking as gods even the most dishonorable among the animals of their enemies, deceived like foolish infants. 12:25 Therefore, as to senseless children, you sent a judgment to mock them.
RABANUS. The punishment for those who lived unjustly and senselessly in their lives was that, through the things they worshipped, they endured torment; and by divine judgment, since they were unwilling to know their Creator and to honor Him as was fitting, they were handed over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not fitting, dishonoring their bodies among themselves, so that in this they would have shame now, and in the future, eternal torment. The apostle Paul explains the truth of this matter in his Epistle to the Romans, saying: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because what is known of God is evident in them. For God has shown it to them. For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse; because, when they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man, and birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up to the lusts of their own hearts, to uncleanness, to dishonor their own bodies among themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen (Rom. 1:18-25). Therefore their heart was blinded, so that the majesty of the invisible God, whom they had recognized from these works, they changed, not to men, but, what is worse, into an inexcusable crime, into the likeness of men, so that God is called by them in the form of corruptible man, that is, the image of a man; so that those whom they do not dare to call by the name of God while alive, they receive the images of the dead into the glory of God. How great is the sickness, how great the foolishness, to call these wise to their own damnation, among whom the dead have more power than the living, and the dead are preferred to the living; for, departing from the living God, they favor the dead, of whom it is written, “A mortal man makes a dead thing with wicked hands” (Wis. 15:17); for therefore they diminished the majesty and glory of God, that to these things which are least and smallest, they gave the honor due to God’s likeness. For the Babylonians were the first to call a thing god, the image of Bel, once a dead man, who is said to have ruled over them. They also worshipped the serpent, the dragon, which Daniel, the man of God, killed, whose likeness they have. The Egyptians, however, worshipped a four-footed animal, which they called Apis, in the likeness of a cow. Jeroboam imitated this evil, making calves in Samaria for the Jews to sacrifice to, and birds, because the pagans have sacred rites for ravens. Yet the Egyptians worshipped the images of all these things I have mentioned, and others which it is not necessary to mention now. These things were done by those who considered themselves wise in the world; for, because they did not honor the invisible God by doing these things, neither could they rightly understand the things that are visible. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:26 But those who were not corrected by the ridicule of rebuke will experience a judgment worthy of God.
RABANUS. Indeed, those who, having been chastised by the scourges of God, were not corrected, have experienced the fitting punishment of damnation; for God chastises for this purpose, that He may amend, not wishing anyone to perish, because He wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. But he who is ungrateful for God's visitation, and through impatience falls into murmuring, is led from temporal chastisement to perpetual torments. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
12:27 For while they suffered in those things they were outraged about, in these things, those whom they thought to be gods, being punished in them, when they saw the one whom they had long denied knowing, they acknowledged as true God; therefore the end of condemnation came upon them.
RABANUS. Wretched breeding, which for so long served idols, was also deceived by error and believed those to be gods by whose persuasions they were led astray, and because of this they were subjected to various punishments. Therefore, many from among them later recognized the true God, whom previously they refused to believe in through His benefits, as almighty in just judgment. For He could not remain hidden, since He is acknowledged to be the ruler of all, because either He grants mercy here to those who are converted through repentance, or He assigns everlasting punishment in the future to those who rebel through pride. [Rabanus Maurus, Commentary on Wisdom, PL 109] 780-856AD
VIGILIUS. We prove that the Son is true, as the Father is, by the words of the prophets and the Gospels, Isaiah saying: To those serving me there shall be called a new name, which shall be blessed upon the earth; and they shall bless the true God, and those who swear upon the earth shall swear by the true God (Isa. 65:15). And in Solomon: Those whom they think to be gods shall fear, by whom they shall be destroyed; seeing him whom they once denied, they have acknowledged as the true God (Wis. 12:27). [Vigilius of Thapsus, Against Marivadus the Arian, PL 62] 5 th century