He moves his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his thighs are knit together.
All Commentaries on Job 40:17 Go To Job 40
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
33. The first suggestion of the serpent is soft indeed, and tender, and easily to be crushed by the foot of virtue. But if it is carelessly allowed to gain strength, and access is freely allowed it to the heart, it increases itself with such great power, as to weigh down the enslaved mind, and to increase to intolerable strength. He is said therefore to set fast his tail like a cedar, because his temptation when once received in the heart, in all subsequent assaults, rules as if by right. The head of this Behemoth therefore is grass, his tail a cedar, he fawns and humbles himself at this first suggestion, but gaining great strength by habit, he is hardened in the increasing close of temptation. For every thing which he suggests at first is easily overcome; but thence there follows, that which can hardly be overcome. For he first addresses the mind in gentle terms, as if advising it: but when he has once fastened on it the fang of pleasure, he is afterwards bound to it almost indissolubly, by powerful habit. Whence also he is well said to ‘set fast his tail.’ For he wounds with his tooth, but binds with his tail; because he strikes with the first suggestion, but binds the mind, once struck, with the increasing close of temptation, that it cannot escape. For since sin is admitted in three ways, namely, when it is perpetrated by the suggestion of the serpent, with the pleasure of the flesh, with the consent of the spirit; this Behemoth first puts forth his tongue, suggesting unlawful thoughts, afterwards alluring to delight, he infixes his tooth; but lastly, gaining possession by consent, he clenches his tail. Hence it is that some persons blame in themselves sins which have been committed through long habit, and avoid them in judgment, but cannot even though contending against them avoid them in act; because when they do not crush the head of this Behemoth, they are frequently, even against their will, bound by his tail. And this has become as hard as a cedar against them, because it has grown up from the alluring pleasure of its beginning even to the violence of retention. Let it be said then; He clencheth his tail like a cedar; in order that every one should the more avoid the beginnings of temptation, the more he understands that it cannot be easily escaped from at the last.
34. It should be known also, that to those whom he has seized, he commonly suggests more grievous sins, when he knows that they are drawing near the close of this present life: and that the more he considers that he is about to consummate the temptation, the more heavy burdens of iniquities does he heap upon them. Behemoth, therefore, clenches his tail like a cedar, because those whom he has seized by evil beginnings, he makes worse at the end; in order that the sooner his temptations are to cease, the more mightily they may be fulfilled. For since he is busied to make their suffering equal to his own punishment, the more ardently does he strive to exaggerate every sin, before their death. But frequently this Behemoth possesses a heart already fatally subject to him, but yet Divine grace repels him; and the gift of mercy ejects him whom the captive will brought in to itself. And when he is expelled from a heart, he strives to inflict sharper wounds of sin, in order that the mind may feel, when assaulted by him, those waves of temptations, which it knew not even when possessed by him. Which is well expressed in the Gospel, when the unclean spirit is said at the Lord’s bidding to go forth from a man. For when the boy, which was possessed by the spirit, was presented to Him, it is written; Jesus rebuked the foul spirit, saying, Thou deaf and dumb spirit, I charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him. And it cried, and rent him sore, and came out of him. [Mark 9, 25. 26.] Behold, it had not rent him, when it possessed him, it rent him when it came out; because he doubtless then harasses the thoughts of the mind more fearfully, when, compelled by Divine power, he draws near his departure. And him whom he had possessed as a dumb spirit, he was leaving with cries: because frequently, when in possession, he inflicts smaller temptations; but when he is expelling from the heart, he disturbs it with sharper assaults. It is therefore well said, He clencheth his tail like a cedar, both because when possessing a heart, he always increases in malice at the end; and when leaving a heart, he smites it with severer wounds of thoughts. But, through the wonderful compassion of the Creator, the more subtle arguments of this Behemoth are also laid open, when it is subjoined;
The sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
35. The sinews of his stones are the deadly arguments of his machinations. For by these he rouses the strength of his cunning, and corrupts the unstable hearts of men. His stones are wicked suggestions, with which he rages in the corruption of the mind, and begets in the debauched soul the progeny of wicked works. But the sinews of these stones are wrapped together, because the arguments of his suggestions are bound together by complicated devices; so as to make many sin in such a way, that, if they wish perchance to escape a sin, they cannot escape it without being entangled in another sin; and that they commit a fault in avoiding it, and that they are unable to release themselves from one, unless they consent to be bound by another. A point which we make clearer, by bringing forward some instances of this ensnaring from the common doings of men. But because Holy Church consists of three orders, namely, the married, the continent, and rulers, (whence both Ezekiel saw three men set free, namely, Noah, Daniel, and Job, [Ez. 14, 14] and the Lord in the Gospel, by saying that there were some in the field, some in the bed, and some in the mill, [Luke 17, 34-36] doubtless points out three orders in the Church,) it is plainly sufficient for us to select an instance out of each class.
36. For, behold, one man, while seeking the friendships of the world, binds himself by an oath to another, leading a similar life, to conceal his secrets with perfect silence; but he, to whom the oath has been sworn, is discovered to be guilty of adultery, so as even to endeavour to kill the husband of the adulteress. But he who has taken the oath, turns back to his own mind, and is assailed by different thoughts on one side and the other, and is afraid of being silent in this matter, lest by silence he should be an accomplice in adultery and homicide at the same time; and is afraid to disclose it, lest he should involve himself in the guilt of perjury. He is bound therefore by the sinews of stones wrapped together, because to whichever side he inclines, he is afraid of not being free from the taint of transgression.
37. Another, forsaking all worldly things, and seeking in all things to crush his own will, wishes to submit himself to the authority of another. But he does not carefully enquire into and discern the character of him who is to rule over him in the Lord. And when he, perhaps, who is injudiciously selected, has begun to rule over him, he forbids the things of God to be done, and enjoins the things of the world. The person under him considering, therefore, either what is the sin of disobedience, or what is the pollution of secular life, both trembles to obey, and fears to disobey; lest by obeying he should forsake God in His commands, or again by disobeying should despise God in the superior he has chosen; and lest by obeying unlawful commands, He should exercise against God that which he chooses for God’s sake; or again, by disobeying, should postpone to his own judgment him whom he had sought for as his own judge. He is, therefore, through the fault of his indiscretion, bound by the sinews of stones wrapped together, because either by obeying, or certainly by disobeying, he is bound with the sin of transgression. He was studying to break down his own will, and he takes care even to strengthen it by despising his superior. He resolved entirely to abandon the world, and he is compelled to return to the cares of the world even through the will of another. The sinews, therefore, are wrapped together, when the arguments of the enemy so bind us, that the knots of sins hold the firmer, the more they are sought to be disentangled.
38. Another, neglecting to think of the weight of ecclesiastical distinction, ascends by bribes to a place of rule. But because every eminent position in this world is more affected by griefs, than delighted by its honours, when the heart is weighed down by tribulations, its fault is recalled to its memory: and a man laments that he has attained to a laborious post by wrong means, and he learns how wrong is his conduct, by being crushed by the very difficulty. Acknowledging, therefore, that he is guilty with the bribes he has expended, he wishes to abandon the lofty position he has gained: but he is afraid it should be a more grievous sin to have resigned the charge of the flock he had undertaken. He wishes to take care of the flock committed to him, but he is afraid it should be a greater fault to hold the authority of pastoral grace which he purchased. He perceives therefore that, through seeking for distinction, he is hampered by sin on every side. For he sees that neither course is without the imputation of guilt, if either the flock he has once taken charge of be abandoned, or again if a sacred office be retained, when purchased in a secular way. He is afraid in every direction, and is suspiciously fearful on every side, either lest remaining in his purchased office he should not properly bewail his not correcting his fault by even abandoning it, or certainly, lest, while endeavouring to lament one fault, by resigning his authority, he should again commit another, by this very forsaking of his flock. Because, therefore, this Behemoth binds with such entangled knots, that a mind, when brought into doubt, binds itself firmer in sin by the very means it attempts to free itself from sin, it is rightly said; The sinews of his stones are wrapped together. For the more the arguments of his machinations are loosened, as if to release us, the more are they entwined to hold us fast.
39. There is, however, a plan which may be usefully adopted to overthrow his craft, namely, that when the mind is held in bondage between less and greater sins, if no outlet for escape is open without sin, the less evils should always be preferred: because even he who is shut in by a circuit of walls on every side, lest he escape, there throws himself down in flight, where the wall is found lowest. And Paul when he observed certain incontinent persons in the Church, conceded the smallest faults, in order that they might avoid greater, saying, On account of fornication, let every man have his own wife. [1 Cor. 7, 2] And because married people are then only without sin in their connection, when they come together, not for the gratification of lust, but for the begetting of children, in order to shew that this which he had conceded was not without sin, though of least degree, he immediately added, But I speak this by indulgence, not by commandment. [ib. 6] For that which is pardoned, and is not commanded, is not without fault He surely saw that to be a sin, which he foresaw he was able to concede [al. ‘could be excused.’]. But when we are constrained by doubts, we profitably yield to the least, for fear of sinning unpardonably in great, faults. The entanglement of the sinews of this Behemoth is therefore frequently unravelled, when we pass to the greatest virtues through the commission of smaller faults.
