On Naboth

1. Avarice Grows With Every Gain

But what do you suppose, that while you live, you abound in all things? O rich man, you know not how poor you are, how needy you seem even to yourself, you who call yourself rich! The more you have possessed, the more you seek: and whatever you have acquired, still you are in need of it. Avarice is inflamed by gain, not extinguished. Greed has, as it were, certain steps: the more of them it has climbed, the higher it hastens toward, whence the fall will be heavier for the one who is about to slip. Yet that man was more tolerable when he had less: from the contemplation of his estate he sought moderate things; with the increase of his patrimony came an increase of greed. He does not wish to be degenerate in his desires, poor in his longings. Thus he joins together two intolerable things at once, so that he increases the ambitious hope of the rich man, and does not lay aside the disposition of the beggar.

Finally, divine Scripture teaches us how wretchedly he is in need, how abjectly he begs.

2. Ahab's Envy and Naboth's Contentment

Achab was king in Israel, and Nabuth was poor. The one abounded in the resources of a kingdom: the other possessed the turf of a narrow plot of ground. The poor man coveted nothing of the possessions of the rich man; the king seemed to himself to be in need, because his poor neighbor had a vineyard. Who then seems poor to you: he who is content with his own, or he who covets another's? The one indeed seems poor in wealth, the other is poor in disposition. A rich disposition knows not how to be in need: an abundant wealth knows not how to fill the breast of the covetous. And so the covetous rich man is both in envy of possession, and in the complaint of poverty. But now let us consider the words of Scripture.

3. Ahab Demands Naboth's Vineyard

And it came to pass, he says, after these words, that there was a vineyard of Nabuth the Jezreelite in Israel, next to the house of Achab, king of Samaria. And Achab spoke to Nabuth, saying: Give me your vineyard, and it shall be to me for a garden of herbs; since it is near my house: and I will give you for it another vineyard: but if it should please you, I will give you money for this vineyard, and it shall be to me for a garden of herbs. And Nabuth said to Achab: Far be it from me before the Lord, that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. And his spirit was troubled, and he lay down on his bed, and covered his face, and did not eat bread.

4. Elisha's Example Condemns the King

Divine Scripture had already set forth above, that Elisha, though he was poor, left his oxen, and ran to Elijah, and killed them, and distributed to the people, and clung to the prophet. These things, therefore, have been set forth beforehand for the condemnation of the rich man, who is depicted in this king, in that, having the benefits of God, as this Achab had, to whom the Lord had granted both a kingdom, and, through the prayer of the prophet Elijah, had granted rain, he violated the divine commands.

5. The King's Beggarly Demand

Let us hear, then, what he says: Give me, he says. What other is the voice of one in need? What other voice is that of one begging for public alms, but "Give me"—that is, give me, because I am in need: give me, because I can have no other means of livelihood: give me, because I have no bread for sustenance, no coin for drink, no expense for food, no substance for clothing: give me, because the Lord has given you the means from which you ought to bestow, but has not given it to me: give me, because unless you give, I shall not be able to have it: give me, because it is written: Give alms. How abject these words are, how base! For they do not contain the feeling of humility, but the fire of greed. Yet in that very abjectness, what impudence! Give me, he says, your vineyard. He confesses it to be another's, in order to demand what he has no right to.

6. Scorning His Own, Coveting Another's

And I will give you, he says, for it another vineyard. The rich man scorns what is his own as though it were worthless; for what belongs to another, he covets as though it were most precious.

7. The Offer of Money for the Vineyard

But if it should please you, I will give you money. Quickly he corrects his own error, by offering money for the vineyard. For he who desires to occupy everything with his own possessions wishes to possess nothing else besides.

1. The World Created for All, Claimed by Few

And it shall be to me, he says, for a garden of herbs. This, then, was the whole madness, this the whole fury, that a space should be sought for worthless herbs. You do not therefore so much wish to possess a thing yourselves as being useful; but you wish to exclude others. You have greater concern for the spoils of the poor than for your own gain. You consider it an injury to yourselves if a poor man has anything that might be deemed worthy of the possession of a rich man. You believe it a loss to you, whatever belongs to another. Why do the losses of nature delight you? The world was created for all, which you, a few rich men, strive to defend for yourselves. For not only the possession of the earth, but the very sky, the air, the sea, is claimed for the use of a few rich men. This air, which you enclose within your extended possessions, how many peoples could it nourish?

Do the angels have divided portions of the sky allotted to them, that you should mark out the earth with fixed boundaries?

2. Isaiah's Woe Against Joining Field to Field

The Prophet cries out: Woe to those who join house to house, and field to field (Isaiah 5:8)! And he charges them with an ineffective greed. For they flee to dwell together with men, and therefore shut out their neighbors: but they cannot flee; for when they have shut these out, they find others again: and when they have driven those away, they must inevitably come to the neighborhood of others. For they cannot dwell alone upon the earth. Birds associate with birds; indeed the sky is often covered by the flight of an immense flock: cattle join with cattle, fish with fish; and they do not consider it a loss, but a fellowship of living, when they gather the largest company, and seek a kind of protection in the comfort of a more numerous society. You alone, O man, exclude your fellow: you shut in wild beasts; you build dwellings for beasts, you destroy those of men.

You bring the sea into your estates, lest wild creatures be lacking to you: you extend the boundaries of the land, so that you may not be able to have a limit.

3. Naboth Defends His Ancestral Inheritance

We have heard the voice of the rich man seeking what belongs to another; let us hear the voice of the poor man vindicating what is his own: Far be it, he says, before the Lord, that I should give you the inheritance of my fathers. As though he considered the rich man's money to be a kind of contagion, as if he were saying: Your money be with you unto destruction; but I cannot sell the inheritance of my fathers. You have, O rich man, if you are wise, something to follow: do not sell your field for the night of a harlot: do not transfer your right for the expense of revelry and the outlay of luxuries: do not adjudicate your house to the game of dice, lest you lose the right of hereditary devotion.

4. The King Mourns His Unsatisfied Greed

Having heard this, the spirit of the covetous king was troubled: And he lay down on his bed, and covered his face, and did not eat his bread. The rich mourn, if they cannot seize what belongs to others: if the poor man has not yielded to their means, they cannot conceal the force of their grief. They wish to sleep, they cover their face, lest they see anything in the whole world that is not their own, lest they know that anything in this world is not theirs, lest they hear that a neighbor beside them possesses something, lest they hear a poor man contradicting them. Theirs are the souls to whom the prophet says: Rich women, arise (Isaiah 32:9).

1. The Rich Man Eats Another's Bread

And he did not eat, it says, his bread; because he sought what belonged to another. For indeed the rich eat another's bread rather than their own, they who live by plunder, and carry on their expenses by robberies. Or else he did not eat his bread, wishing to punish himself with death, because something had been refused him.

2. The Rich Fast Even Amid Abundance

Compare now the disposition of the poor man. He has nothing, and knows not how to fast voluntarily except for God, knows not how to fast except out of necessity. You rich, you snatch away everything indeed from the poor, you take away all, you leave nothing: yet it is you, the rich, who rather endure the punishment of the poor. They fast, if they have nothing; you, even when you have. From yourselves, therefore, you first exact the penalty, before you inflict it upon the poor. You, therefore, by your own disposition pay for the hardships of wretched poverty: and the poor indeed have nothing to use; but you yourselves neither use it, nor allow others to use it. You dig gold out of the veins of the ore, but again you hide it away. How many people's lives you bury in that gold!

3. Treasures Hoarded for an Ungrateful Heir

For whom are those things kept, when you have read of the covetous rich man: He lays up treasures, and knows not for whom he gathers them? An idle heir waits, a disdainful heir complains, that you die too late. He hates the increase of his inheritance, he hastens toward its losses. What, then, is more wretched, when not even with him for whom you labor do you leave behind any gratitude? For his sake you endure a sorrowful hunger through all your days, fearing daily losses to your table: for his sake you arrange daily fasts.

4. A Rich Man's Miserly Fast in the Country

I have known a rich man, setting out for the countryside, who was accustomed to count the smaller loaves brought from the city; so that from the number of loaves it might be reckoned how many days he would be in the country. He was unwilling to open his sealed granary; lest anything be diminished from what was stored. One loaf per day was allotted, which could scarcely satisfy him even then. I have learned also, on trustworthy account, that if ever an egg was set before him, he complained that a chicken had been killed. I write this so that you may know that the justice of God is an avenger, who avenges the tears of the poor by your own fasting.

1. The Rich Man's Table Stained With the Poor's Blood

How devout a fast it would be, if you were to allot the expense of your banquet to the poor! More tolerable already was that rich man, from whose table the poor Lazarus gathered the things that fell, desiring to be satisfied: but even his table consisted of the blood of many poor men; and his very cups dripped with the gore of many whom he had driven to the noose.

2. Lives Lost to Furnish the Rich Man's Feast

How many are slain, that what delights you may be prepared? Deadly is your hunger, deadly your luxury. That man fell from lofty heights, that he might prepare storehouses to rival your granaries. That man fell from the high summit of a tall tree, while searching out the kinds of grapes he might bring, from which worthy wines might be poured for your banquet. That man was drowned in the sea, while fearing lest fish or oysters be lacking for your table. That man stiffened in the winter cold, while striving to track a hare, or to catch birds with snares. That man, before your eyes, if perchance something displeased you, is beaten to death, and sprinkles your very feast with shed blood. Finally, there was a rich man who ordered the head of a poor prophet to be brought to him at table: and he found nothing else with which to pay the dancing-girl's reward, except to order the poor man to be killed.

3. A Poor Father Forced to Sell His Children

I have seen a poor man led away, while he was being compelled to pay what he did not have, dragged off to prison, because wine was lacking at the table of a powerful man; and I have seen him bring his sons to auction, that he might for a time delay the punishment. If by chance someone were found to relieve that necessity, the poor man returned to his lodging with his family, gazing on all his goods stripped away, nothing left for food, groaning over the hunger of his children, grieving that he had not rather sold them to one who could feed them. He returns to deliberation, he takes up the decision to sell. Yet the injury of poverty and the claim of fatherly love fought against each other: hunger urged him toward the price, nature toward duty: ready to die together with his children rather than be separated from them, he often took a step forward, often called it back. Yet necessity, not will, prevailed in him, and piety itself yielded to necessity.

4. A Father's Anguish Over Which Child to Sell

Let us now consider the storms of a father's mind seething within him, as to which of his children he should hand over first. "Which," he says, "shall I sell first? For I know that the price of one is enough to feed the rest. This alone is the hardship of a fruitful abundance. Whom shall I offer? Whom will the grain-buyer look upon gladly? Shall I offer the firstborn? But he was the first to call me father. This is the eldest of my sons, whom I fittingly honor as the elder. But shall I give the younger? Yet him I embrace with a tenderer love. The one I am ashamed before, the other I pity: for the one's rank I sigh, for the other's age: the one already feels the hardship, the other does not know it: the one's grief bends me, the other's ignorance. Shall I turn to the others?

This one flatters me more, that one is more modest: this one is more like his parent, that one more useful: in this one I sell my own image, in that one I betray my hope. Wretched me! I find nothing to do, I have nothing to choose. The faces of calamities surround me, a chorus of miseries."

5. The Father Likens His Sale to Joseph's Story

This is a wild-beast frenzy, to choose whom you will hand over. The wild beasts themselves, when they sense danger threatening their offspring and themselves, are wont to choose which ones to set free, not which ones to offer up. How then shall I set aside natural affection? How shall I forget, how shall I strip off a father's mind? How shall I arrange the sale of my son? With what words shall I bargain over the price? Into whose hands shall I deliver my son into servitude? With what eyes shall I look upon him serving? With what kisses shall I bid farewell to him as he departs? With what words shall I excuse the deed? "Son, I have sold you for my food." More deadly, then, is now the table of the poor man than that of the rich. He sells strangers, I sell my own; he imposes necessity, I bring willingness.

That the cause may be more excusable, I will add: "Son, you shall serve for the sake of your brothers, that food may be procured for them." And Joseph too was sold by his brothers into servitude, and afterward fed both them and his father. And he will answer too: "But his father did not sell him, but wept for him as lost: yet afterward he himself also came into the power of a rich man, and could scarcely be freed. Afterward his people served the riches of Egypt for many an age. Sell me at last, father, on this condition, that the rich do not buy me."

6. The Father's Shame Before His Remaining Sons

I have hesitated, I confess: but what shall I do? Shall I sell none? But while I consider one, I shall see them all perishing of hunger. If I hand over one, with what eyes shall I look upon the others, suspicious of my impiety, lest I sell the others too? With what shame shall I return home? How shall I enter? With what feeling shall I dwell there, I who have denied my own son, whom no illness consumed, whom death did not take away? With what conscience shall I look upon my table, which so many sons clothed round about like young olive shoots?

7. The Rich Man's Wife Prefers Jewels to Mercy

These things the poor man laments in your presence, and yet greed stops up your ear, nor is your mind softened by the horror of so pitiable a deed. The whole people groans, and you alone, rich man, are not moved, nor do you hear Scripture saying: "Lose your money for your brother and friend, and hide it not under a stone unto perdition". And because you do not hear, therefore Ecclesiastes cries out saying: "There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner thereof". But perhaps you go home and confer with your wife: let her urge you to redeem the one sold. Rather she will urge you instead to bring together your feminine finery, from which you could free the poor man even at small cost. She will impose on you the necessity of expenses; that she may drink from a gem-studded cup, sleep in purple, recline on a silver couch, load her hands with gold, her neck with necklaces.

8. Women's Vanity in Gems and Gold

Women delight even in fetters, provided they are bound with gold. They do not think them burdens, if they are precious: they do not consider them chains, if treasures glitter in them. Even wounds delight them; so that gold may be inserted into the ears, and pearls may hang down. Gems too have their own weight, and garments have their own chills. One sweats in gems, one freezes in silks; yet the prices please them: and what nature shuns, greed commends. Emeralds, and hyacinths, beryl, agate, topaz, amethyst, jasper, sardius, they seek with the utmost frenzy: even if half the patrimony be demanded, they do not spare the expense, so long as they indulge their desire. I do not deny that a certain pleasing splendor belongs to these stones, but a splendor of stones nonetheless. And they themselves, polished contrary to nature, admonish us—since they have laid aside the roughness of rocks—that the hardness of the mind ought rather to be polished away than that of stones.

1. Riches Cannot Ward Off Death

What craftsman could add one single day to a man's life? Whose riches have redeemed him from the dead? Whose sickness has money soothed? "A man's life," he says, "consisteth not in the abundance of his riches". And elsewhere: "Treasures profit nothing to the unjust: but justice delivereth from death". Rightly does the Prophet cry out: "If riches abound, set not your heart upon them". For what do they profit me, if they cannot free me from death? What do they profit me, if they cannot be with me after death? Here they are acquired, here they are left behind. We are speaking, then, of a dream, not of a patrimony. Whence the same Prophet says well concerning the rich: "They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands"; that is to say: The rich have found nothing in their works, they who conferred nothing at all upon the poor: they helped no one's need, they could find nothing that would profit them for their own advantage.

2. Dis, Dives, and the Slavery of Avarice

Consider the very name. The gentiles call the ruler of the underworld "Dis," the arbiter of death they call "Dis" and "rich" (dives), because the rich man knows how to bring nothing but death, he whose kingdom is of the dead, whose seat is the underworld. For what is a rich man, but a certain insatiable whirlpool of riches, an insatiable hunger and thirst for gold? The more he drinks, the more he burns. So the prophet warns: "He who loves silver," he says, "shall not be satisfied with silver". And further on the same: "And indeed this is the worst sickness. For as he came, so also he departed, and his abundance labors into the wind. And indeed all his days are in darkness, and mourning, and much anger, and sickness, and wrath"; so that the condition of little slaves is more tolerable. For they serve men, but he serves sin. So the Apostle says: "For he who commits sin is the slave of sin." Always in snares, always in chains: never free from fetters, because always in crimes.

What a wretched servitude, to be a slave to sins!

3. The Rich Fool Who Built Bigger Barns

He knows not the duties of nature itself, nor does he know the changes of sleep, nor does he enjoy the sweetness of food, he whose servitude is immune from none of these. For sweet is the sleep of the slave, whether he eats little or much: but for the man sated with riches, there is none to let him sleep. Cupidity rouses him, wakeful care of seizing another's goods harasses him, envy tortures him, delay vexes him, barren scarcity of yield disturbs him, abundance itself troubles him.

Whence to that rich man, whose possession brought forth abundant fruits, who thought within himself, saying: "What shall I do, because I have no room where to gather my fruits?" and he said: "This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I gather all things that are grown to me, and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years: rest, eat, drink, make good cheer"; God answered him: "Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee: and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided"? Not even God himself allows him to sleep. He interrupts him as he thinks, he rouses him as he sleeps.

4. What Shall I Do? The Cry of a Poor Man

But not even does he himself allow himself to be at rest, he who is anxious over the abundance of his own riches, and in the plenty of his fruits sends forth the voice of a needy man: "What shall I do?" he says. Is this not the voice of a poor man, one who has no means of livelihood? A man in want of everything looks here and there, searches his lodging, finds nothing for the use of food: he considers that nothing is more wretched than to be consumed by hunger, and to die from lack of food: he seeks a shortcut to death, and scans out the more tolerable forms of dying: he grasps a sword, hangs a noose, kindles a fire, tests poison: and amid these things, uncertain which to choose, he says, "What shall I do?" Then, called back by the sweetness of this life, he wishes to recall his resolve, if he could find some means of livelihood. He looks at everything bare, everything empty, and says: "What shall I do?

Whence shall I get food, whence clothing? I wish to live, if I have some way I can sustain this life: but with what food, with what resources?"

5. I Have Not: The Poverty of the Miser

"What shall I do," he says, "because I have not?" The rich man cries out that he does not have. This is the speech of poverty: one abounding in fruits complains of want. "I have not," he says, "where to gather my fruits." You would think he was saying: "I have no fruits, whereby I must live." Blessed is he who is endangered by abundance; nay, this man is more wretched by his own fruitfulness than the poor man, who is endangered by want. That poor man has something whereby to excuse his hardship; he has, to be sure, an injury, not a fault: this man has no one besides himself to accuse.

6. A Better Course: Opening the Barns to the Poor

And he said: "This will I do: I will pull down my barns." You would think he was still going to say: "I will open my barns, let those enter who cannot bear hunger, let the needy come, let the poor enter, let them fill their bosoms, I will tear down the walls that shut out the starving. Why should I hide what God causes to abound for me to give? Why should I close with bolted doors the grain, with which God has filled the whole compass of the fields, which grow and abound without a guard?"

1. The Barns as a Monument to Iniquity

The hope of the miser is defeated. The old barns burst with new harvests. "I had less," he says, "and I saved it in vain: more has been produced, and for whom do I gather it? While I hunt after the increase of prices, I have lost the use of benefits. How many souls of the poor could I have preserved with last year's grain? These would have delighted me more to preserve as gains, which are valued not by coin, but by grace. I will imitate holy Joseph in the proclamation of kindness: I will cry out with a loud voice: Come, poor ones, eat my bread, spread out your lap, receive the grain. The fruitfulness of a rich man ought to be the abundance of the whole world, the fertility of all." But you do not say this, rather you say: "I will pull down my barns." Rightly do you pull down those from which no poor man returns laden. Barns are the receptacles of iniquity, not the resources of pity.

Rightly does he pull down who does not know how to build wisely. The rich man pulls down his own goods, who does not know eternal goods: he pulls down barns, who does not know how to divide his grain, but only how to shut it up.

2. Building Greater Barns Instead of Giving

"And I will build greater," he says. Unhappy man, distribute at least to the poor what you spend on the cost of building. While you shrink from the grace of generosity, you pay out the losses of construction.

3. The Miser's Fear of Overflowing Abundance

And he added: "There will I gather all things that are grown to me, and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods." The miser is always worn out by the abundance of his produce, while he calculates the cheapness of provisions. For fruitfulness belongs to all, but scarcity of soil is profitable to the miser alone. He is more delighted by the enormity of prices than by the abundance of supplies; and he prefers to have what he alone may sell, rather than what he might sell along with everyone else. See him fearing lest the heap of grain overflow, lest, overflowing above the barns, it be poured out upon the poor, and some occasion of good be gained for the needy. The rich man claims the produce of the earth for himself alone, not that he himself may wish to use it, but to deny it to others.

4. Turning Worldly Goods to Good Use

"Thou hast," he says, "much goods." The miser knows how to call nothing good, except what is profitable. But let me grant him this, that things pecuniary be called good. Why then do you make evils out of goods, when you ought rather to make goods out of evils? For it is written: "Make unto yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity". To him, then, who knows how to use them, they are goods: to him who does not know how to use them, they are rightly evils. "He hath dispersed, he hath given to the poor: his justice remaineth for ever". What is better than this? Goods they are, if you bestow them on the poor, whereby you make God your debtor by a certain lending of piety. Goods they are, if you open the barns of your justice, that you may be bread to the poor, life to the needy, an eye to the blind, a father to orphaned infants.

5. True Storehouses in the Hearts of the Poor

You have the means to do it, what do you fear? I address you with your own voice. You have many goods laid up for many years, you are able to abound both for yourself and for others. You have public fruitfulness, why do you destroy your barns? I show you where you may better keep your grain, where you may fence it well, so that thieves cannot take it from you. Enclose it in the hearts of the poor, where no worm may consume it, no age corrupt it. You have storehouses: the bosoms of the needy: you have storehouses: the homes of widows: you have storehouses: the mouths of infants, so that it may be said to you: Out of the mouths of infants and sucklings thou hast perfected praise. These are the storehouses that remain forever: these are the barns which future fruitfulness will not destroy. For what will you do again, if more should be born to you next year?

Then again you will destroy those things which you are now preparing to make, and you will make greater ones. For God gives you fruitfulness, that it may either overcome or condemn your avarice; so that you cannot have an excuse: but what he willed to be born through you for many, you reserve for yourself alone—indeed you even take it away from yourself; for you would keep more for yourself, if you distributed it to others. For the fruit of good gifts returns to those very ones who have bestowed them, and the grace of liberality returns to its author. Finally it is written: Sow for yourselves unto righteousness. Be a spiritual farmer, sow what will profit you. A good sowing is in the heart of widows. If the earth returns to you more abundant fruits than it received, how much more will the recompense of mercy return multiplied what you have given!

1. This Night Your Soul Shall Be Required

Then, man, do you not know that the day of death outstrips the yielding of the earth's fruit, while mercy shuts out the assault of death? Already those stand by who will demand back your soul, and you still put off the fruits of your works. Do you still measure out for yourself long spans of time to live? Fool, this night they demand back your soul from you. He says well, "this night"; for by night is the soul of the miser demanded back: it begins from darkness, and perseveres in darkness. For the miser it is always night; for the just man it is day, to whom it is said: Amen, amen I say to thee, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. But the fool is changed like the moon (Sirach 27:12): whereas the just shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Rightly is he charged with folly, who has placed his hope in eating and drinking.

And therefore the time of death presses upon him, according to what is said by those very ones who serve their gullet: Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die. Rightly is he called a fool, because he furnishes his soul with bodily things; because he stores up what he does not know for whom he keeps.

2. The Generous Steward Versus the Anxious Keeper

And therefore it is said to him: But the things which you have prepared, whose shall they be? Why do you daily measure and count and seal? Why do you weigh gold in the balance, weigh silver? How much better it is to be a generous steward than an anxious keeper! How much would it profit you toward grace, to be named the father of many orphans, rather than to have countless sealed weights in your purse! For money indeed is left behind here: but the grace of good works is carried with us to the judge of merit.

3. Answering the Excuse That the Poor Are Cursed

But perhaps you may say, what you commonly are wont to say: We ought not to give to him whom God has so cursed that he willed him to be in need. But the poor are not cursed, since it is written: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Scripture speaks not of the poor man, but of the rich: He that hoards up grain shall be cursed. Then do not ask what each one deserves. Mercy is not accustomed to judge according to merits, but to relieve necessities: to help the poor man, not to examine his righteousness. For it is written: Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor. Who is he that understands? He who has compassion on him, who considers him a partner of nature, who recognizes that the Lord made both rich and poor, who knows that he sanctifies his own fruits, if from them he sets aside some portion for the poor.

Therefore, since you have the means of doing good, do not delay, saying: Tomorrow I will give; lest you lose the opportunity of giving. It is dangerous to delay another's salvation. It could happen that while you delay, he dies. Rather run ahead before death, lest perhaps avarice hinder you even tomorrow, and your promises be defrauded.

1. The Voice of Avarice Compared to Jezebel

But what shall I say, so that you may not delay generosity? Would that you not hasten to rapine: would that what you have coveted, you do not extort: would that you do not seek what is another's, that you pass over what is refused, that you bear patiently what is excused, that you do not listen to that Jezebel who is avarice, saying with a certain overflow of vanity: I will give you the possession which you desire. You are sad, because you wish to consider the measure of justice, so as not to snatch what is another's; I have my own rights, I have my own laws; I will slander in order to despoil: and in order that the poor man's possession may be snatched away, his life shall be assailed.

2. Jezebel as the Figure of the Rich Man's Greed

For what else is described in that history, but the avarice of the rich, which is a vain overflow, which snatches up all things after the manner of a river, and carries them away to no useful profit? This is Jezebel, not one, but manifold: not of one time, but of very many times: she says to all what she said to her husband Ahab: Arise, eat bread, and return to yourself: I will give you the vineyard of Nabuth the Jezraelite.

3. Jezebel's Forged Letter Against Naboth

And she wrote a letter in the name of Ahab, and sealed it with his ring, and sent the letter to the elders, and to the free men who dwelt with Nabuth. And it was written in the letter: Proclaim a fast, and set Nabuth as head of the people, and appoint two men, sons of iniquity, over against him; that they may bear false witness against him, saying: He has blasphemed God and the king; and bring him out, and stone him.

1. True Fasting Versus a Counterfeit Piety

How plainly is the custom of the rich expressed! They grieve if they cannot seize what belongs to others: they renounce food, they fast, not to lessen sin, but to commit crime. You may see them then coming together to the Church, dutiful, humble, assiduous, that they may deserve to obtain the accomplishment of their wickedness. But God says to them: This is not the fast I have chosen, nor if you bow your neck like a hoop, and spread beneath you ashes and sackcloth, will you thus call it an acceptable fast. Not such a fast have I chosen, says the Lord. But loose every bond of injustice, dissolve the obligations of violent exchanges, let go the broken in remission, and tear apart every unjust record: break your bread for the hungry, bring the needy who have no shelter into your house: if you see one naked, clothe him; and you shall not despise the household members of your own seed.

Then your morning light shall rise for you, and your health shall arise speedily and precede you, and righteousness shall go before you, and the majesty of God shall surround you: then you shall cry out, and God will hear you, and while you are still speaking, he will say: Behold, I am here.

2. The Rich Man's Legal Claims Answered by God's Law

Do you hear, rich man, what the Lord God says? And yet you come to the Church, not in order to give something to the poor, but in order to take away: you fast, not so that the expense of your feast may profit the needy, but so that you may gain plunder from the needy. What do you want with book and paper, and seal, and record, and the bond of law? Have you not heard: Loose every bond of injustice, dissolve the obligations of violent exchanges, let go the broken in remission; and tear apart every unjust record. You offer me tablets, I recite to you the law of God: you write with ink, I repeat to you the oracles of the prophets inscribed by the Spirit of God: you compose false testimonies, I demand the testimony of your conscience, which you will not be able to flee or evade as your judge, whose testimony you will not be able to refuse on the day when the Lord shall reveal the hidden things of men.

You say: I will destroy my barns; and the Lord says: Rather let whatever is within the barn be assigned to the poor, let those storerooms benefit the needy. You say: I will make them greater, and there I will gather all that has been born to me; the Lord says: Break your bread for the hungry. You say: I will take from the poor their house; but the Lord says that you should bring the needy who have no shelter into your house. How do you wish, rich man, that God should hear you, when you do not think God ought to be heard? If the rich man's will is not agreed to, a scene is staged: God's injury is reckoned, if the rich man's petition is refused.

1. False Witnesses Condemn Naboth to Stoning

He has blasphemed, they say, God and the king—an equal person, evidently, so that the insult may be equal. He has blasphemed, they say, God and the king. Lest the name of a cursed man offend the rich, and he be injured by the very sound of the word, blessing is called for cursing. Two witnesses of iniquity are sought. By two witnesses Susanna also was assailed: two witnesses the Synagogue found too, who might cast false charges against Christ: by two witnesses the poor man is slain. They brought Nabuth out, then, and stoned him. Would that at least it had been permitted him to die among his own! The rich man begrudges even burial to the poor man.

2. Ahab's Feigned Grief and Seizure of the Vineyard

And it came to pass, it says, when Ahab heard that Nabuth was dead, he tore his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth. And it came to pass after this, and he rose, and Ahab went down to the vineyard of Nabuth the Jezraelite, to take possession of it. The rich grow angry and bring false charges, in order to do harm, if they do not obtain what they have desired. But when by their false charges they have done harm, they pretend to grieve: sad however, and as though mournful, not in heart, but in countenance, they come forward into the place of the plundered possession, and enjoy the iniquity of their oppression.

3. God's Sentence on Ahab for Naboth's Blood

By this divine justice is moved, and condemns the greedy man with fitting severity, saying: Have you killed and taken possession of the inheritance? Therefore in the place where the dogs licked the blood of Nabuth, in that same place shall the dogs lick your blood; and harlots shall wash themselves in your blood. How just, how severe a sentence, that the bitterness of death which he inflicted on another, he himself should be shown to dissolve by the horror of his own death! God beholds the unburied poor man, and therefore decrees that the rich man shall lie unburied; and that, being dead, he may pay the penalty of his iniquity, who did not think even the dead should be spared. So then, his corpse, drenched with the blood of his wound, betrayed in the appearance of a funeral the cruelty of his life. When the poor man endured these things, the rich man was accused; when the rich man received them, the poor man was vindicated.

4. Jezebel's Fate and a Warning Against Avarice

But what does it mean that harlots washed themselves in his blood; unless perhaps that a certain harlotry might be shown to have been in that ferocity of the king's treachery, or a bloody luxury, since he was so luxurious as to desire a vegetable garden; so bloody, as to kill a man for the sake of a vegetable garden? A fitting penalty consumes the greedy, a fitting penalty consumes avarice. Finally, Jezebel herself was devoured by dogs and the birds of the sky; that it might be shown that the burial of the rich man becomes the prey of spiritual wickedness. Flee therefore, rich man, an end of this kind. But you will flee such an end, if you flee such a crime. Do not be an Ahab, coveting a neighboring possession.

Do not let that deadly avarice, that Jezebel, dwell with you, who persuades you to bloody deeds: who does not recall your desires, but drives them on: who makes you even sadder when you have obtained what you desired: who makes you naked, even when you have become rich.

1. Ahab Meets Elijah With a Guilty Conscience

For every man of abundance judges himself poorer; because he thinks that whatever is possessed by others is lacking to himself. He is in want of the whole world, whose desires the world cannot contain; whereas of him who is faithful, the whole world is a store of riches. He flees the whole world, who, considering his own conscience, fears to be caught. And therefore Ahab, according to the history, says to Elijah, but according to the hidden meaning the rich man says to the poor man: Have you found me, my enemy? How wretched a conscience, which grieved that it had been betrayed!

2. Guilt Exposed, Wealth Made Captive

And Elias said to him: I have found thee, because thou hast done evil in the sight of the Lord. That one was a king, and king of Samaria, Achab: Elias was poor and lacking bread, whose sustenance would have failed him, had not the ravens ministered nourishment. So cast down was the conscience of the sinner that he was not even lifted up by the pride of royal power. And so, as though vile and degenerate, he says: Thou hast found me, my enemy: thou hast caught in me what I believed lay hidden: no secrets of my mind escape thee: thou hast found me, my wounds lie open to thee, my captivity is at hand. The sinner is found when his iniquity is disclosed, but the just man says: Thou hast tried me by fire, and iniquity hath not been found in me.

Adam, when he hid himself, was found; but Moses’ burial place was never found: Achab is found, Elias is not found; and the Wisdom of God said: The wicked shall seek me, and shall not find me. Whence also in the Gospel our Lord Jesus was sought, and was not found. Guilt, then, betrays its own author. Whence too the Thesbite says: I have found thee, because thou hast done evil in the sight of the Lord; for guilt hands the guilty over, but the Lord does not hand the innocent over into the power of their enemies. Finally, Saul was seeking holy David and could not find him; but holy David found King Saul, whom he was not seeking, since the Lord delivered him into his power. Wealth, then, is captive, poverty is free.

3. Avarice Compared to an Insatiable Whirlpool

You serve, O rich, and indeed a wretched servitude, you who serve error, serve greed, serve avarice, which cannot be satisfied. It is a kind of insatiable whirlpool, more violent as it swallows down what is thrown into it; and like a well when it overflows, it is fouled with mud, scraping up earth that will profit it nothing. It is fitting you be admonished by this example too. For a well, if you draw nothing from it, is easily corrupted by idle sloth and degenerate stagnation; but when kept in use it grows bright to look at, sweet to drink: so too the heap of riches, sandy in its mass, is beautiful in use, but is reckoned useless in idleness. Draw off, then, something from this well. Burning fire is quenched by water, and almsgiving withstands sins; but standing water quickly breeds worms. Let not your treasure stand still, nor let your fire stand still: it will stand still in you, unless you turn it aside by works of your compassion.

Consider, O rich man, in how many fires you stand. That voice is yours which says: Father Abraham, tell Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue.

4. Almsgiving as Repayment of a Debt

Whatever you bestow on the needy profits you: whatever you diminish grows for you: you feed yourself with that food which you give to the poor man; since he who has mercy on the poor is himself fed, and the fruit is already present in these deeds. Mercy is sown in earth, it sprouts in heaven: it is planted in the poor man, it buds forth before God. Say not, says God, tomorrow I will give. He who does not allow you to say, “Tomorrow I will give,” how does he allow you to say, “I will not give”? You do not bestow on the poor man out of what is yours, but you restore out of what is his. For what has been given in common for the use of all, you alone usurp. The earth belongs to all, not to the rich; but fewer are those who do not use what is theirs than those who use it. You are therefore paying a debt, not bestowing what is not owed.

Therefore Scripture says to you: Bow down your soul to the poor man, and pay your debt, and answer him peaceably in meekness.

1. Noble Birth Does Not Make Merit

Why, O rich man, do you swell with pride? Why do you say to the poor man: Touch me not? Were you not conceived and born of the womb just as the poor man was born? Why do you boast of your noble lineage? You are wont to recount the pedigrees of your dogs as of the rich; you are wont to proclaim the nobility of your horses as of consuls. That one was begotten of that father, and brought forth by that mother; that one rejoices in that grandfather; that one exalts himself by his great-grandfathers. But this profits nothing to the runner; the prize is not given to nobility, but to the race. More shameful is a way of life in which even the nobility of one’s birth is put in peril. Beware, then, O rich man, lest the merits of your ancestors blush at you within you, lest it be said to them too: Why did you appoint such a one, why did you choose such a one as heir?

The merit of an heir does not lie in gilded ceilings, nor in disks of porphyry. That praise belongs not to men, but to metals, in which men are punished. Through the needy gold is sought, and to the needy it is denied. Men labor to seek it, labor to find it, what they know not how to possess.

2. The Rich Man Blessed for Resisting Gold

Yet I marvel why you, the rich, think you should boast in this, why gold should be matter more for offense than for commendation. For gold is to him a stumbling-block, and woe to those who follow after it! For it is written: Blessed is the rich man who has been found without blemish, and who has not gone after gold, nor put his hope in treasures of money. But as though he could not be known when he desires to be shown forth to himself: Who is this, it says, and we will praise him; for has he done something that we ought to marvel at as new, rather than recognize as customary? So then, he who has been able to be proven in riches, is truly perfect and worthy of glory. He who could transgress, it says, and has not transgressed; could do evil, and has not done it. Gold, therefore, in which there is so great an allurement to error, commends you not so much by its own grace as by the penalty of men.

3. Lavish Halls While the Poor Starve

Or do spacious halls exalt you? These ought rather to prick your conscience, because, while they hold crowds of people, they shut out the voice of the poor man. Though it profit nothing to be heard, that voice which even when heard profits nothing. Then does not the hall itself admonish you of shame, you who by building wish to surpass your own riches, and yet do not surpass them? You clothe walls, you strip men bare. Naked a man cries before your door, and you neglect him: a naked man cries out, and you are anxious with what marbles to clothe your pavements. The poor man seeks money, and has none; a man asks for bread, and your horse chews gold beneath his teeth. But precious ornaments delight you, while others have no grain. How great a judgment, O rich man, do you take upon yourself! The people hunger, and you shut your granaries: the people weep, and you turn over your gem.

Unhappy man, in whose power it lies to defend the lives of so many from death, and yet has no will to do it! The gem of your ring could preserve the life of a whole people.

4. The Righteous Use of Wealth Described

Hear plainly what kind of profession befits a rich man: I delivered, he says, the poor man from the hand of the mighty, and the orphan who had no helper, I helped. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me; and the mouth of the widow blessed me. I was clothed with justice; I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame; and I was a father to the weak And further: No stranger dwelt at my door; but my door was open to every comer.

But if I also sinned unwittingly, I did not hide my fault, nor did I stand in awe of the multitude of the people, so as not to declare it before them; if I suffered any weak person to go out empty from my door; if also, whatever bond I had of a debtor, I returned it torn, without recovery of the debt, without delay For what shall those recount, who said that he wept over every weak person, and groaned when he saw a man in need while he himself was in prosperity? But that then were the days of trouble for him more, when he perceived that he had, and others lacked.

If this is said by one who never made the widow’s eye grow dim with weeping, who never ate his bread alone without giving to the orphan, whom from his youth he nourished, fed, and instructed with a father’s affection; who never despised the naked, who covered the dying, who warmed with the fleeces of his sheep the shoulders of the weak, who never oppressed the fatherless, who never delighted in riches, never rejoiced at the fall of his enemies; if one who did these things began to be in want of the greatest riches, if he brought back nothing from so great a patrimony except only the fruit of mercy—what shall become of you, who know not how to use your patrimony, who in the midst of the greatest riches endure the days of beggary, because you bestow on none, you succor none?

1. Sell Your Riches for Heavenly Treasure

You are, then, the guardian of your goods, not their master, you who bury gold in the earth—a mere servant of it, not its judge. But where your treasure is, there is your heart also. So in that gold you have buried your heart in the earth. Sell rather your gold, and buy salvation; sell your stone, and buy the kingdom of God; sell your field, and redeem for yourself eternal life. I speak truly, since I build on the word of truth: If thou wilt be perfect, he says, sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And be not sorrowful when you hear this, lest it be said to you too, as it was said to that rich young man: How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the kingdom of God; rather, when you read this, consider that death can snatch these things from you, that a higher power can take them away.

In short, you are asked for small things in place of great, perishable things in place of eternal, treasures of money in place of treasures of grace. The former are corrupted, the latter endure.

2. God Made a Debtor by Almsgiving

Consider that you do not possess these things alone; the moth possesses them with you, rust possesses them, which consumes money. These companions greed has given you. But see what debtors grace gives you: Splendid in bread the lips of the just shall bless, and testimony to his goodness shall be given. It makes God the Father your debtor, who for the gift by which the poor man was helped, pays out interest, like the debtor of a good creditor. It makes the Son of God your debtor, who says: I was hungry, and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took me in; naked, and you covered me. For whatever has been bestowed upon each of the least, he says was bestowed on himself.

3. True Riches Are Riches Toward God

You do not know, O man, how to build up riches. If you wish to be rich, be poor to the world, that you may be rich to God. He who is rich in faith is rich to God; he who is rich in mercy is rich to God; he who is rich in simplicity is rich to God; he who is rich in wisdom, rich in knowledge, is rich to God. There are those who abound in poverty, and those who are needy in riches. The poor abound, whose deep poverty has abounded in the riches of their simplicity; but the rich have been needy and have hungered. Nor is it written idly: The poor of the rich shall be set over them, and their own servants shall lend at interest to their masters; because the rich and the masters sow superfluous and evil things, from which they gather not fruit but reap thorns.

And therefore the rich shall be made subject to the poor, and servants shall lend spiritual things at interest to their masters; just as the rich man begged that the poor Lazarus might lend him a drop of water at interest. You too, O rich man, can fulfill this saying: bestow on the poor man, and you have lent to the Lord; for he who bestows on the poor man lends to the Lord.

4. God Known in Judea, Not Among the Rich

Holy David beautifully begins the hymn to God written against the Assyrian, that is, against the Assyrian of spiritual wickedness, the empty and vain prince of this world, in this way: God is known in Judea; that is, God is known not among the rich, not among the noble and powerful, but in the confessing soul. And in Israel, he says, his name is great; not among princes and consuls, but in the one who sees God. For that is Israel, in whom deep faith could come to the knowledge of God.

5. The Peace of the Just Soul in Sion

And his place, it says, has been made in peace; where a quiet disposition is stirred by no waves of diverse desires, troubled by no storms of avarice, set aflame by no fires of seeking after riches. He it is who beholds eternal things, and dwells in Sion, shattering all the spiritual instruments of war, breaking the bows with which the devil, aiming fiery darts, is wont to brand grievous passions upon the breasts of men. But those darts cannot harm the just man, to whom God is light, and who is so far removed from the horror of darkening shadows, that the adversary can have no place in him—he who is accustomed to insinuate himself even into princes; as he insinuated himself into Judas the betrayer, cutting down, as it were in a forest of trees, the doors of faith, that he might have entrance into his heart, and possess the tabernacle of the eternal name, dedicated by the gift of the apostolate conferred upon him.

So then that one, like a wicked usurper, cuts down the doors, that he may enter by violence; but the Lord, like a loving father, illumines his little servants, and by their shining merits and the brightness of their virtues, lights up the darkness of this world. This grace the peaceable and gentle have with God, founded on the sober tranquility of their mind; but the foolish of heart are troubled, and are themselves the authors of their own agitation; because they are tossed about by the surge of their own desires, and are driven upon a kind of restless sea.

Those slumber in this world who were deemed worthy of heavenly rebuke, who have mounted horses which they were unable to rein in. We read elsewhere the Church, or the soul, speaking: He set me on the chariots of Aminadab. If then the soul is a chariot, see that the horse is the flesh; and the charioteer is the vigor of the mind, which governs the flesh, and restrains its movements, as it were certain horses, with the reins of prudence. They slumbered, therefore, who have mounted the pleasures of the body, governing them with no restraint. Wherefore he preferred to call them "riders" rather than "horsemen" or "charioteers." For a charioteer drives his horses with discipline and skill according to his own judgment, so as either to urge on those running, or to check the unruly, or to call back the weary, or to turn the tame according to his own will.

Hence when Elias was taken up, and was borne as it were to heaven in a chariot, Elisha cried out to him: Father, father, the chariot-driver of Israel, and his horseman; that is, you who ruled the people of the Lord with good guidance, by the merit of your constancy you have received these chariots, these horses running toward things divine, because the Lord approved you as the governor of human minds; and therefore, as a good charioteer, victor of the contest, you are crowned with an eternal reward. In the prophet Habakkuk also we read that it was said to the Lord Himself: You shall mount upon your horses, and your riding shall be salvation; for He drove His apostles, whom He directed through different regions, that they might preach the Gospel throughout the whole world. He says, "You shall mount," as of one who guides the horses, not as of one who merely sits upon them.

For a rider too mounts, but in order to govern, not merely to sit; because the slothful and lazy man cannot bear the drowsy progress of the mind.

1. Do Not Trust in Horses or Chariots

Of the horseman, however, we read: And the horseman shall fall backward, awaiting the salvation of the Lord. Because no one is without a fall, even if some horseman should fall, and be bent by certain earthly vices; yet if he does not cast away hope of rising again, relying on divine mercy, he attains to salvation. But concerning the rider it is a manifest indication that he is held blameworthy, when Moses himself says in the song of Exodus: The horse and his rider He has cast into the sea. And in Zechariah the Lord spoke, saying: I will strike every horse with madness, and his rider with folly. He said not only "horse," but also "rider," just as in Exodus you have: The horse and the rider. For where the rider, who cannot govern his own horse, is, there the horse also is carried headlong, if it is swept away by untamed fury into steep and dangerous places. Why then, you rich, do you trust in horses? A horse is a vain thing for safety.

Why do you applaud yourselves in chariots? These in chariots, and these in horses, but we will be magnified in the name of the Lord. They are bound, and have fallen; but we have risen and are set upright. Do not love the neighing ones; do not, you rich, be stirred up by the neighing of lust. The Lord is terrible, and no one, however powerful and rich, can resist Him: He hurls forth the heavenly judgment.

1. A Call to Confess Hidden Sins

It is good that you now be at rest, and, ceasing from your crimes, revere the power of the Lord. Therefore it was said to the parricide Cain: You have sinned, be still, that he might set a limit to his sin. Let your thoughts confess to the Lord. Do not say: We have not sinned. Paul said: Although I am conscious of nothing in myself, yet he added: But I am not thereby justified. And you also, even if you are conscious of nothing, nevertheless confess to the Lord, lest there be something that escapes you. For he who confesses the Lord, and brings the remnants of his thought to confession, will celebrate the mind's feast day in secret, and will feast not in the leaven of malice and wickedness, but in the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.

2. Render to God the Gifts He Gave

Thus in conclusion the Prophet, turning to you, says: Pray, and render to the Lord your God, that is: Do not pretend, you rich, the day is at hand, pray for your sins, render the gifts due for the benefits which you have. From Him you have received what you offer; His is what you pay to Him. Gifts, he says (1 Chron. XXIX, 14), mine, and my gifts given, that is, the gifts which you offer to me are my gifts given: I gave and bestowed them upon you. Finally the Prophet says: You have no need of my goods; therefore I offer to you what is yours, since I have nothing which you did not give. It is faith that wins gifts favor, it is humility that commends what is offered. By faith Abel offered a very great sacrifice to God: above the gifts of his brother Cain, the gift of Abel was pleasing, because he conquered by faith. For why does the sacrifice of the poor man please more than that of the rich?

Because the poor man is richer in faith, wealthier in sobriety; and though he be poor, he is of those of whom it is said: To you kings shall offer gifts. For the Lord Jesus does not delight in those clothed in purple who offer, but in those who govern their own impulses, who rule the bodily wantonness by the empire of the mind. Pray therefore, you rich! You have nothing in your works that pleases. Pray for your sins and your crimes, and render to the Lord your God your gifts. Render in the poor man, pay in the needy, lend at interest in that indigent man, whom you cannot otherwise appease on account of your crimes. Make him your debtor whom you fear as an avenger. I will not accept, He says, calves from your house, nor goats from your flocks; for all the beasts of the forests are mine. Whatever you shall have offered, He says, is mine, because the whole world is mine.

I do not exact what is mine: there is something of your own that you can offer me, namely zeal of devotion and of faith. I am not delighted by ambition of sacrifices: only, O man, offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay to the Most High your vows.

3. The Poor Draw Near, the Rich Grow Distant

Or, if it be preferred, let us understand it thus. Since he had said that the rich have fallen into their sleep, he set forth first the rebukes of the Lord against them, he interwove terror, he proclaimed a power which even the rich cannot resist; then, turning to all, he says: Let the rich slumber, let the rich be rebuked: you, pray, and render to the Lord your God, all you who bring gifts round about him, that is, give thanks, you poor, because God is no respecter of persons. Let them heap up riches, hoard money, pile up treasures of gold and silver: you pray, who have nothing else; you pray, because this alone you have, which is more precious than gold and silver. You render gifts, who do not withdraw from the Lord, who are round about Him; since you who were far off have been made near. But those who seem to themselves to be near through riches and power have been made far off through avarice.

For no one is outside except him whom fault has excluded, as it cast Adam out of paradise, and excluded Eve. No one is far off, except him whom his own crimes have banished.

4. Ahab's Downfall for Coveting Naboth's Vineyard

Therefore you, placed near, pray and render gifts to Him who is terrible, and who takes away the spirit of princes, terrible to the kings of the earth; since He is redeemed by no bribe of the rich man, bent by no arrogance of the powerful, He who apportions the prices of guilt, who, the more He has conferred upon anyone, the more He exacts from him. He gave Saul a kingdom when Saul was a private man; but because Saul did not keep the command, he lost both kingdom and spirit. Many kings of the nations, on account of their perfidy, he made captives from among the people of the fathers. And, to speak now of the story before us, he commanded King Achab, ungrateful for heavenly benefits, to be slain in such a way that his wounds should be licked by his own dogs. For because he had coveted the vineyard of a poor man, though by no means satisfied with such great resources of empire, he was reduced by the Lord below every poverty.

There was found no one to wash his wounds, no one to cover his body. The kindness of men failed around him, the harshness of dogs succeeded. The avaricious man found ministers of his funeral worthy indeed of himself.

1. Did Ahab's Repentance Avert God's Judgment

At this point arises that question, how we read that the Lord said to Elias: Have you seen how Achab is moved before my face? I will not bring in the evils in his days, but in the days of his son I will bring in the evils. Or how do we say that penitence avails with the Lord? Behold, the king was moved before the face of the Lord, and went weeping, and rent his garments, and covered himself with sackcloth, and was clothed in sackcloth from that day on which he slew Naboth the Jezraelite; so that he moved God to mercy, and God changed His sentence. Therefore either penitence did not avail, nor did it bend the merciful Lord, or the oracle is false. For Achab was both conquered and slain.

2. Jezebel's Influence and Ahab's Broken Repentance

But consider that he had Jezebel as wife, by whose will he was inflamed, who turned his heart, and made him execrable with excessive sacrileges; and it was this same man whose feeling of penitence He recalled. But the Lord cannot be reckoned mutable; rather, He did not think it was to be kept toward one forgetful of his confession, what He had promised to one confessing.

3. Ahab's Own Fault in Sparing the King of Syria

Take this other, truer explanation: even toward the unworthy the Lord kept the tenor of His sentence, but he himself did not keep the divine benefits toward himself. The king of Syria had brought war: he was conquered, and preserved unto pardon; the captive too was granted liberty, and sent back to his kingdom. What belonged to the divine sentence, Achab not only escaped, but even triumphed in; what belonged to his own cowardice, he armed against himself an enemy by whom he would be conquered. And indeed he had been warned by the prophet who said: Know and see what you should do. He had been warned, I say, because heavenly grace's help was owed to the servants of the king of Syria, since they had said: The God of the mountains, the God of Israel, and not the God of Baal: for this reason, he said, they prevailed against us.

And therefore, he said, if we do not fully prevail against them, set satraps in the place of the king of Syria; that He might take away from them the strength and power of the king. Then, at the first encounter he conquered, so as to put the enemy to flight; at the second he conquered, when he restored the captive to his own rule. The evident cause of his victory was made clear by an oracle, when one of the sons of the prophets said to his neighbor: Kill me. And the man refused to kill him. And he said: Because you have not obeyed the word of the Lord, behold, you shall depart from me, and a lion shall kill you. And he departed from him, and a lion found him, and killed him.

And after this another prophet stood before the king of Israel, and said to him: Thus says the Lord, Because you have let go out of your hand the man of extermination, behold, your life shall go for his life, and your people for his people.

4. God Keeps His Promises Despite Human Unworthiness

It is clear, therefore, from these oracles, that the Lord keeps His promises even toward the unworthy; but that the impious are either covered by their own folly, or are condemned by another transgression, even if they have escaped the snares of the first transgression. But we ought so to act, that, made worthy by good work, we may deserve to receive the promises of Almighty God.