CHAPTER 30

Verse 15.^[230] “To the leech there belonged three daughters.” The devil is the leech who sucks out, as it were, the blood of souls, that is, their life force. And he has daughters, not sons, for [these things involve] nothing courageous, but every enfeebling pleasure. Hades, or a vice which is a daughter of the devil, destroys souls and does not receive satiety. Love of a woman, or the atheistic teaching is not filled up with deceit. Earth that is not filled with water, a soul that is sandy and barren, who continually drinks from the Scriptures, but is none the better for it. To all such ones there is a fire of punishments.

Verse 18.^[231] “Three things are impossible for me to understand.” Speculation into intelligible knowledge is impossible for a novice, and it is impossible for man to contemplated and to understand things that are above man, such as the treatment of cancer, even though the angels might understand this. It is impossible for something to be understood but in no way exist, nor [even] be possible, such as three things being four.^[56] It seems, therefore, to have been spoken concerning things that do not exist. [Just as] an eagle not leaving behind courses when it flies about in the air, in a way corresponding to the courses that are left behind in the sandy earth of those who traverse it, are something impossible to be understood, so also in the case of the serpent: it is possible for [its] ways to be understood in soft soil, but not in a rock.

Verse 19.^[232] “And the paths of a sea-sailing ship.” Perhaps we should read the “ship” in these passages as Jesus and his disciples, and at another time as only the [disciples] themselves. [The “ship” refers to Jesus and the disciples] when it is not “sea-sailing,” “for immediately,” by divine power, “the boat was on the land, to which they were going” ^[233]. A ship is “sea-sailing” when it is not bearing Jesus, as it is continually unsettled by adverse winds.^[57] And since the matters of life are vanity, with those who are continually sailing the sea, and with no one among men advancing unto eternal life, it is not possible to understand their paths. Therefore, with the glorious kings of the earth or even those who rule over a foreign work of piety, nothing is left behind after death. For their glory will be extinguished.^[58] But they are not known, he says, nor are the ways of man in youth, of someone who is enflamed by the desires because of the instability of [their] tropoi, and [the ways] of an adulteress, similarly on account of [her] shamelessness. Or, this is the Church of the nations, which after having been washed through baptism says she has done nothing improper. The righteous person is not in youth, since, having been perfected in a short time, he fulfills lengthy times ^[234]. Such is the case with every adulteress woman, or one who alienates herself from the bridegroom, even a soul which forsakes its husband, going after [other] lovers.

Verse 27.^[235] “And it marches out from one command in good order.” The locust is also praised as well-ordered, being persuaded by the command of God’s word. Such is the Church which, because it is despised by men, is compared to a “locust” as living on the earth. And because it is gathered together with Jesus and does not disperse, but is endowed with “the full armor of God,” in order that she may stand “against the wiles of the devil” ^[236], she encamps “in good order from one command.” And she is “without a king” as regards subjection to Pharaoh, but not as regards subjection to God; and the labors of the Egyptians have been handed over to her. Equally, because we are not ruled [by a king] before the kingdom of Christ,^[59] the locust is without a king.^[60] For they have no principal leader, just as with bees, but each one leads. These are those who have by free will unburdened themselves of earthly things, as they travel with an ordered life. Or also locusts, whom such as desire to fly with the intellect, but being unable they rise from the ground for only a brief time. But if they partake of practice, they will be led up to one practical order.

Verse 31.^[237] “And a he-goat leading a herd.” Third, the “he-goat,” according to the LXX alone, is “leading a herd,” causing it to grow and to multiply and leading [it] to the pastures in exalted places. For no other herd of animals mounts up to exalted places in this way. This one who is leading is Christ,^[61] who brings those in his herd up to the summit.^[62] Or in another reading, the he-goat typifies Christ as he who offered himself on behalf of sin.^[63] The whole multitude of the pious follow Him who is at the summit.