Oration XVI. On His Father’s Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail.

 1.  Why do you infringe upon the approved order of things?  Why would you do violence to a tongue which is under obligation to the law?  Why do you ch

 2.  I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous.  The first wisdom is a life w

 3.  Fairer in my eyes, is the beauty which we can gaze upon than that which is painted in words:  of more value the wealth which our hands can hold, t

 4.  Do not thou, therefore, restrain a tongue whose noble utterances and fruits have been many, which has begotten many children of righteousness—yea,

 5.  Tell us whence come such blows and scourges, and what account we can give of them.  Is it some disordered and irregular motion or some unguided cu

 6.  Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops.  It could not be otherwise, when men are already rejoicing in their hopes, and counti

 7.  I know the glittering sword, and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to naught, to make childless, and to spare neither flesh

 8.  What shall we do in the day of visitation, with which one of the Prophets terrifies me, whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us,

 9.  But then what advocate shall we have?  What pretext?  What false excuse?  What plausible artifice?  What device contrary to the truth will impose

 10.  What are we to do now, my brethren, when crushed, cast down, and drunken but not with strong drink nor with wine, which excites and obfuscates bu

 11.  Perchance He will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, the heedless is he

 12.  Far be it from me that I should ever, among other chastisements, be thus reproached by Him Who is good, but walks contrary to me in fury because

 13.  With these words I invoke mercy:  and if it were possible to propitiate His wrath with whole burnt offerings or sacrifices, I would not even have

 14.  Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker let us appoint a public mourning, in our va

 15.  Let us be assured that to do no wrong is really superhuman, and belongs to God alone.  I say nothing about the Angels, that we may give no room f

 16.  It is a fearful thing, my brethren, to fall into the hands of a living God, and fearful is the face of the Lord against them that do evil,

 17.  Only let us recognise the purpose of the evil.  Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the

 18.  One of us has oppressed the poor, and wrested from him his portion of land, and wrongly encroached upon his landmark by fraud or violence, and jo

 19.  What shall be said to this by those of us who are buyers and sellers of corn, and watch the hardships of the seasons, in order to grow prosperous

 20.  Join with us, thou divine and sacred person, in considering these questions, with the store of experience, that source of wisdom, which thou hast

17.  Only let us recognise the purpose of the evil.  Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the fruits of the earth been withheld, and the plains been filled with shame instead of with fatness:  why have valleys lamented and not abounded in corn, the mountains not dropped sweetness, as they shall do hereafter to the righteous, but been stript and dishonoured, and received on the contrary the curse of Gilboa?104    2 Sam. i. 21.  The whole earth has become as it was in the beginning, before it was adorned with its beauties.  Thou visitedst the earth, and madest it to drink105    Ps. lxv. 9.—but the visitation has been for evil, and the draught destructive.  Alas! what a spectacle!  Our prolific crops reduced to stubble, the seed we sowed is recognised by scanty remains, and our harvest, the approach of which we reckon from the number of the months, instead of from the ripening corn, scarcely bears the firstfruits for the Lord.  Such is the wealth of the ungodly, such the harvest of the careless sower; as the ancient curse runs, to look for much, and bring in little,106    Hag. i. 9. to sow and not reap, to plant and not press,107    Deut. xxviii. 39. ten acres of vineyard to yield one bath:108    Isai. v. 10.  and to hear of fertile harvests in other lands, and be ourselves pressed by famine.  Why is this, and what is the cause of the breach?  Let us not wait to be convicted by others, let us be our own examiners.  An important medicine for evil is confession, and care to avoid stumbling. I will be first to do so, as I have made my report to my people from on high, and performed the duty of a watcher.109    Ib. xxi. 6; lxii. 6; Habak. ii. 1.  For I did not conceal the coming of the sword that I might save my own soul110    Ezek. xxxiii. 3. and those of my hearers.  So will I now announce the disobedience of my people, making what is theirs my own, if I may perchance thus obtain some tenderness and relief.

ΙΖʹ. Πλὴν ἐπιγνῶμεν τοῦ κακοῦ τὴν ὑπόθεσιν. Πόθεν ἐξηράνθησαν γεωργίαι, ᾐσχύνθησαν ἀποθῆκαι, καὶ νομὴ ποιμνίων ἐξέλιπεν, ὠλιγώθη τὰ ὡραῖα τῆς γῆς, οὐκ ἐπλήσθη τὰ πεδία πιότητος, ἀλλὰ κατηφείας: οὐκ ἐπλήθυναν αἱ κοιλάδες σῖτον, ἀλλ' ἐκλαύσθησαν: οὐκ ἐστάλαξε τὰ ὄρη γλυκασμὸν, ὡς ὕστερον τοῖς δικαίοις, ἀλλ' ἀπεκοσμήθη καὶ ἠτιμάσθη, καὶ τὴν Γελβουὲ κατάραν ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων ἐδέξατο; Γέγονεν ὡς τὸ ἀπ' ἀρχῆς πᾶσα ἡ γῆ, πρὶν κοσμηθῆναι τοῖς ἑαυτῆς κάλλεσιν. Ἐπεσκέψω μὲν τὴν γῆν, καὶ ἐμέθυσας αὐτὴν, ἀλλ' ἐπισκοπὴν πονηρὰν καὶ μέθην ὀλέθριον. Φεῦ τοῦ θεάματος! ἐν καλάμῃ τὰ τῆς εὐφορίας ἡμῖν, καὶ μικροῖς λειψάνοις ἡ σπορὰ γνωρίζεται, καὶ μόλις ἀπαρχὰς Κυρίῳ τὸ θέρος ἡμῶν καρποφορεῖ, μησὶ μᾶλλον ἢ δράγμασι καταλαμβανόμενον. Τοιοῦτος ὁ πλοῦτος τῶν ἀσεβῶν, τοιαῦτα τὰ τῶν κακῶς σπειρόντων γεώργια: ἐπιβλέψαι, ὡς ἡ παλαιὰ κατάρα, πλείονα, καὶ εἰσενεγκεῖν ὀλίγα: σπεῖραι, καὶ μὴ ἀμῆσαι: φυτεῦσαι, καὶ μὴ ἐκθλῖψαι: οὗ ἐργῶνται δέκα ζεύγη βοῶν, ποιῆσαι κεράμιον ἕν: καὶ παρ' ἄλλοις ἀκούειν τὴν εὐκαρπίαν, αὐτοὺς ἐνδείᾳ πιεζομένους. Πόθεν ταῦτα, καὶ τίς ἡ αἰτία τοῦ θραύσματος; Μὴ ἀναμείνωμεν ὑπ' ἄλλων ἐλεγχθῆναι: ἡμῶν αὐτῶν ἐξετασταὶ γενώμεθα. Μέγα κακίας φάρμακον, καὶ ὁμολογία, καὶ φυγὴ τοῦ πταίσματος. Ἐγὼ πρῶτος, ὥσπερ ἀνήγγειλα τῷ λαῷ μου ἄνωθεν, καὶ τὸ τοῦ σκοποῦ ἔργον πεπλήρωκα. (οὐ γὰρ ἔκρυψα τὴν ἐρχομένην ῥομφαίαν, ἵνα καὶ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ ψυχὴν, καὶ τὰς τῶν ἀκουόντων περιποιήσωμαι): οὕτως ἀναγγελῶ καὶ τοῦ λαοῦ μου τὴν ἀπείθειαν, ἐμαυτοῦ τὰ ἐκείνου ποιούμενος: εἴ πως ἂν οὕτω τύχοιμί τινος φιλανθρωπίας καὶ ἀναψύξεως.