Exposition of Proverbs

Regarding his words: For it is not possible to add to the law of the Lord, nor is it possible to take away from it. 'Make me to have long false words and long pseudonymous knowledge.' Lest, having been filled with falsehood, I become so and say, 'Who sees me?' Lest—he says—having been filled, a listener becomes arrogant, and I say, 'No one shall know my own wisdom'; lest, having been filled with unapproachable knowledge, I appear to men as a liar, saying such things as those provided with blood and flesh are not able to know.

And the seventh proverb is also well-placed: 'Lest, being in need, I steal and swear by the name of God' (Matt 5:35); for someone steals foreign theories in order to fill a starving mind. But this happened before the arrival of the Savior, but now Paul says: 'Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him work righteousness, so that having acquired knowledge he may give to the one in need' (Eph 4:28); for what is it that is not ours, that we should steal, we who have believed in Christ? (1 Cor 6:7). For all things are ours, but we are Christ's, through whom all things came to be, and Christ is God's.

Or being in need, I will steal and swear by the name of my God: This one steals knowledge, not he who takes that of the predecessor, but he who subtracts from pseudonymous knowledge. For all those who have believed in Christ, receiving theories from the holy prophets and apostles, are not called thieves of foreign theories, but rather heirs of the patrimonial goods.

Do not deliver a servant into the hands of a master: To a fleeing mind, do not again deliver it to evil, if indeed everyone doing sin is a slave of sin; and sin is now called the devil, who works sin. But upon them shall come a good blessing: The good blessing is the intelligible blessing, which is distinguished from the sensible blessing.

Prepare your works for the exodus and prepare for the field: Our Lord in the Gospels named the world a field, but Solomon now has spoken of the field as the theory of the world; but the one in the Gospels, the field, is that of the composition of a human soul and body, for it is sensible; whereas the one indicated here, the field, is of the mind alone, being intelligible and composed from the words of this world, into which hearts enter.

Pure things. And you will not build your house: for a house is built with wisdom; but wisdom will not enter into a soul that is ill-skilled. And the walls of its stones are being undermined: apathy of a rational soul, established from the practical virtues, is a wall.

Mocking the eye of a father and dishonoring the aged mother, crows cut him out of the ravines (Proverbs 30:17): these crows mystically nourish the righteous, but they slaughter the unrighteous, gouging out the eyes of injustice, because they mocked the Father and God of all, and dishonored the ancient knowledge that begot them; and regarding the crows that gouge out the eyes of the impious, he called them ravens, but regarding those devouring him entirely, he named them eagles, because they believe in a partial purification for the former, and a total purification for the latter.

And a goat is considered a scapegoat: if the unpurified are standing as rivals on the left side of the Savior, the goat leads these; lest the goat now signifies the devil.

And the weak will not be able to judge rightly: they will not be able to teach rightly (Proverbs 31:9). Give drink to those in sorrows (Proverbs 31:9): he who is intoxicated by the potency of the master's house forgets his pains. And distinguish between the poor and the weak: poor means one lacking in knowledge, and weak means the unpurified.

The glory of God hides a word (Psalm 103:37): he who possesses the glory of God, he called the glory of God, and he who possesses the glory of the heavenly King, he named the glory of a king; for these hide the word of God within themselves, so that they might not sin, and they honor the commands through which they perform them. Often we have noted this, that those possessing virtues and evils are named by the virtues and the evils; thus, 'The Lord is just and loved justice,' instead of 'the just'; and 'The fear of the Lord hates injustice, insolence, and pride,' that is, the unjust, the insolent, and the proud. And here again he named the one possessing the glory of God and the one possessing the glory of the king, the glory of God and the glory of a king. Or perhaps he says 'the glory of God' regarding the one glorifying God, and 'the glory of a king' regarding the one glorifying the king, so that the saying might be such: the one glorifying God hides his word, and the one...