You have become cruel to me: with your strong hand you oppose yourself against me.
Read Chapter 30
Gregory The Dialogist
AD 604
62. The old translation is widely at variance with this sense, because what is spoken in this concerning God, is related in that of adversaries and persecutors. Yet because this new translation is said to have transferred every thing from the Hebrew and Arabic more truly, we should believe whatever is delivered in it, and the right way is that into the word of it our interpretation should search with exactness. Accordingly he says, Thou art changed to cruel unto me, and in the hardness of Thy hand Thou opposest Thyself to me. In Holy Scripture when any thing is said of God unworthy, the mind of the reader is affected, as if it were ever the case that any thing that is worthy were spoken of God. Since well nigh every thing that is spoken touching God, is by this alone henceforth unworthy, that it admitted of being spoken. But for Him to Whose praise the conscious faculty, being astounded, is not equal, when may the tongue by speaking suffice? But the Holy Spirit teaching to men that understand this same truth, how unutterable are the things above and the things of God, sometimes uses even those words concerning God, which amongst men are held as a fault, that from these things which seem unworthy of men, and yet are spoken concerning God, men should be admonished to know that neither are those things even worthy of God, which whilst they are accounted worthy among men, are thought worthy of God.
63. For God is called ‘jealous,’ as it is written, The Lord, his Name is ‘jealous.’ [Ex. 34, 14] He is called ‘wroth,’ whence it is written, The Lord was wroth against Israel. [Numb. 32, 13.] The Lord is called ‘repentant,’ as where it is written, It repenteth Me that I have made man upon the earth. [Gen. 6, 7] And again; It repenteth Me that I have set up Saul to be king over Israel. [1 Sam. 15, 11] He is entitled compassionate, as where it is written, Merciful and pitiful is the Lord, patient and full of compassion. [Ps. 86, 15.] He is called ‘foreknowing,’ as the Apostle saith concerning Him, For whom He did foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. [Rom. 8, 29] Whereas neither ‘jealousy,’ nor ‘wrath,’ nor ‘repentance,’ nor strictly speaking ‘compassionateness,’ nor ‘foreknowledge,’ can be in God. For all these particulars are derived into Him from human qualities, while there is a descending to words expressive of infirmity, that as it were a kind of steps being made for us, and set beside us, by the things which we see close to us, we may one time be enabled to mount up to the high things of Him. For He is said to ‘feel jealous,’ who guards the chastity of his wife with torment of mind. ‘He is said to be ‘wroth,’ who is inflamed with heat of spirit against evil that deserves to be punished. He is said to ‘repent,’ to whom that which he has done is displeasing, and contrarily by changing does some other thing. He is called ‘compassionate,’ who is moved with pity towards his neighbour. Now ‘misericordia’ (‘commiseration’) is so called from ‘miserum cor,’ (‘a miserable heart,’) for this reason, because each individual sees a person wretched, and sympathizing with him, while he is affected with grief of mind, he himself makes his heart miserable, that he may free from misery the man that he is set on. He is said to ‘foreknow,’ who sees each particular event before it comes, and that which is future foresees before it becomes present. How then is God described as being ‘jealous,’ Who in watching over our chastity, is not affected by any torment of mind? How is He ‘wroth,’ Who in taking vengeance on our evil ways is not stirred by any agitation of mind? How is He ‘repentant,’ Who what He has once done is never at all sorry that He has done? How is He ‘commiserating,’ Who has not ever a heart of misery? How is He foreknowing, whereas nothing but what is future can be foreknown? And we know that to God there is nothing future, before the Eyes of Whom things past there are none, things present pass not by, things future come not; seeing that all that to us was and will be is in His sight at hand, and all that is present He is able to know rather than foreknow. And yet He is called ‘jealous,’ He is called ‘wroth,’ He is called ‘repentant,’ He is called ‘commiserating,’ He is called ‘foreknowing,’ that because He watches over the chastity of each individual soul, He should after man’s method be called ‘jealous,’ though He be not touched by torment of mind. And because He smites sins, He is said to be ‘wroth,’ though He be not affected by any agitation of the spirit. And because Himself unchangeable He changes that that He is minded, He is said to ‘repent,’ though it is the thing He changes, not His counsel. And when He succours our misery, He is called ‘commiserating,’ though He succours the miserable, and has not ever a heart of misery. And because the things which to us are future He sees, which same however to the Same Being are always at hand, He is styled ‘foreknowing,’ though He does not in any way foresee the future, which He sees as present. For even whatsoever things are, in His Eternity are not therefore seen because they are, but therefore they are because they are seen. Whilst therefore there is a coming down to the words of our changeableness, by those, as being made a kind of steps, let him, who is able, mount up to the unchangeableness of God, that he may see One shewing jealousy, without jealousy, One wroth without wrath, One repentant without sorrow or repentance, full of commiseration without a miserable heart, foreknowing without foresight. For in Him can neither the past nor the future be found, but all things changeable last unchangeably, and things, which in themselves cannot exist together, are all of them at once and together present to Him, and nothing that goes by passes away in Him, because in His Eternal Being, in an incomprehensible manner, all the rolls of ages whilst passing remain, whilst running a race stand still.
64. As then we understand Him ‘jealous’ without jealousy, ‘wroth’ without wrath, so He might by the holy man be also called ‘cruel’ without cruelty. Since he is called ‘cruel,’ who while smiting with severity spares not; that is to say that in this passage ‘cruel’ should be taken for one striking with severity, and not sparing the avenging of sin. Hence also Isaiah, when he saw the day of final Judgment was destined to come not henceforth with pardon but with rigour, says, Behold the day of the Lord cometh, cruel both with wrath, and fierce anger, to lay the land desolate; and to destroy the sinners thereof out of it. [Is. 13, 9] Therefore the holy man, that he might declare that this same cruelty is more suited to himself than to God, says, Thou art changed to cruel unto me. As though he said in plain terms, ‘Thou, Who hast in Thine own Self nought of cruelty, to me, whom Thou sufferest not to draw breath from persecution, Thou seemest cruel.’ For so God is not capable of being cruel, just as He is not in the least degree capable of being changed. But because in God there comes not either cruelty or changeableness at any time, whilst He says ‘unto me,’ he shews that he is sensible that God is in Himself neither ‘cruel’ nor ‘changeable.’ But because as concerns ourselves things prosperous and things adverse shift to and fro, in this that we ourselves are changed, we as it were imagine as concerns ourselves His mind changed. But He the same Being remaining unchangeable in Himself, in the thought of men’s hearts comes to be felt now one way and now another, according to the character of their minds. For the light of the sun too, whereas it is not at all unlike to itself, seems to weak eyes harsh, but to sound eyes gentle; that is to say, by their changing, not by its own. Therefore as we before said, in saying, Thou art changed, he added unto me, that this very ‘cruelty’ and ‘changing’ might be not in the attributes of the Judge, but in the mind of the sufferer. Which he laid open by other words also, saying, And in the hardness of Thine hand Thou opposest Thyself to me. For ‘the Hand’ of the Lord is thought ‘hard,’ when being opposed to our will, that thing which displeases Him in us, it follows hard upon by striking; and He redoubles the strokes, when the soul of the sorrower looks for clemency.
Which words, howsoever, according to the mystery of the allegory, suit well the words of Holy Church speaking in the accents of the weak, who very often reckon themselves to be smitten more than they fancy they deserve, and esteem as cruelty of the Judge the severity of the lancing howsoever most just, seeing too that when the wound of the sick man is cut away by the chirurgeon’s steel, the operator is called cruel, who however by the hardness of the hand that cuts is opposed to the wound, but in concert with the health.
