What hath pride profited us? or what good hath riches with our vaunting brought us?
All Commentaries on Wisdom of Solomon 5:8 Go To Wisdom of Solomon 5
Cassiodorus Senator
AD 585
The proud despise the humble when they hear them speak of things that they reject. Because the proud love the things of this world, they do not concern themselves with future things and, in their malicious wickedness, attack with greater violence those who try to follow the Lord"s precepts. But at the future judgment they will experience an exchange of roles. Those who are rich and proud will be despised and the object of reproaches, as Solomon says of them: "What good has our pride done for us? What has our wealth and its boasting brought us?" It is clear that normal human speech would have required that it be said, "Our soul is full of the reproaches of the rich and the despising of the proud." But by saying, "Our soul is full. It is a reproach to the rich and a despising of the proud," this seems to be a way of speaking proper to the divine Scripture, which must not be considered mistaken but as something that has not yet been contemplated by human thought.
