The Transfer of Wealth and the Inevitability of Suffering

He presents the thought in the Psalms, as it is said: 'I saw the impious one being exalted and puffed up like the cedars of Lebanon; and they passed by and behold, he was not, and I sought him and the place of him was not found' (Ps 73:9). For evil, not subsisting... I say, is unless in the choice of the one acting. If indeed that choice, being made, ceases, evil no longer has its composition; therefore his existence is in his choosing.

'Crush the arm of the sinner and the wicked, his sin shall be sought; and it shall not be found through itself' (Job 5:8). For because it is unsubstantial, it is not found; for evil is not an essence, but has being having been produced in choice. Again, when the wandering and the evil cease.

But concerning evil in general it has been said: 'And injustice lied about itself.' Just as we often say that the earth and its inhabitants and the good are being deceived by poverty, so also evil is said to lie about itself, no longer being present, when 'all pain, distress, and sighing flees away' (Ps 102:3). And the diet of the punishment being carried out is made thin.

'Would their children be far from salvation. But they were punished at the doors of Hyssop and there shall be no one being taken out' (Ps 106:10). He prays that some discipline may come to the boastful, so that pleasant and human good things may turn away from them, which he called 'salvation'; for such a labor will happen to them. He says, 'they were punished,' meaning they were treated with contempt, being humbled by lesser ones, with no one being a helper.

For humiliation is profitable to the proud, first, so that through such a thing an immoderate evil may be generated, and second, so that they may be disciplined again. And 'they were punished' is derived from 'kolos', which is 'kolobos'; for a small pig is called 'kolobron'. 'For what those gathered, the righteous shall be given' (Matt 13:43). Even if saying this humanly, he would provide a good account, claiming that just as the impious gather, the righteous eat, unless something paradoxical seems to be happening; for not at all is it found to be so. And in the Divine Proverbs it is said: 'Wealth of the impious is stored up for the righteous' (Prov 13:22), which...

Yet we do not necessarily accept this for the sake of history. Since it has been said proverbially, it follows that the Jews are said to be rich, having both law and prophet, though they did not use them properly. This wealth was transferred to the nations. For the vine 'shall be removed' and 'shall be given to a nation that produces its fruits' (Matt 21:43). 'And they themselves shall not be set apart from evils; their strength shall be siphoned off.' He says that not only do the ungodly grasp at wealth, but they shall never be set apart from evils. And their power itself shall be completely emptied, from the transfer of that which is being siphoned until nothing even liquid remains; consider these things, if he speaks them in a proverbial way.

Know, however, that these things will not necessarily happen to the wicked; for many have received the end of this life in clarity of mind. If, moreover, he speaks these things having an apprehension of the coming age and of punishment, consider this also. But what the holy man says regarding those who prosper unjustly, advising the one who pays attention: 'Do not fear when a man prospers, for he will not take all things with him in dying, nor will the glory of his wealth grasp him.' Throughout his whole word, he speaks of these heavy evils: poverty, sickness, infamy, and dishonor.

'For toil shall not come forth from the earth, nor shall labor spring up from the mountains, but man is born of toil, and young vultures fly the heights' (Job 5:7; 38:7). The curses which he brought upon the ungodly, or which he wished to show must fall upon them, he says he did reasonably; for it is the lot of men to fall into tribulations and not to be without suffering (Job 5:7). And the word may also be exhortatory, as it is the custom to say to the many: 'You have not suffered anything outside of human nature; for indeed we have life in toil.' And the very being born of us happens in toil and ill-suffering, among the myriads of those existing and those being born in hardship.

If you are able to interject the word concerning the one born blind into this, consider it. For concerning him, 'the disciples of Jesus asked him: Did this man sin or his parents, that he was born blind?' (John 9:2). 'But young vultures fly the heights' is similar to saying that a person without soul does not fly in evil. And young vultures, he says, in the heights...