Still, it was when humanity was in this state that the Word—the Son—came to seek and to find that which was lost. Even before he came, he tried to restrain us from such foolishness, crying out, Don’t be like the horse and the mule which have no understanding and whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle.^[1] And because his own people were careless and acted as the wicked did, Isaiah, praying in the Spirit said, You are to me like merchants of Phoenicia.

If all our acts and deeds depend on the fates acquired at our birth and not on principles of morality, why are laws established and statutes promulgated by which punishment is meted out to the wicked and security bestowed on the innocent? . . . Why does the farmer toil and not rather wait until it is time to convey into his storehouses the produce for which he has not labored, relying on the prerogatives of his birth? If he was destined by birth to be endowed with wealth without the expenditure of labor, he should undoubtedly wait until the earth brings forth fruit spontaneously without seed. If such were the case, he should not sink his ploughshare into the earth or put his hands on the curved scythe or undergo the expense of harvesting the grapes. Rather, the wine would without effort flow plenteously into his stock of jars. Without effort, too, he would let the wild olive berry exude its oil without the labor of grafting upon the trunk of the olive tree. In the same way a merchant who travels over the wide seas would not be in dread of the perils that threaten his own life, for it is within his power, because of a certain destiny allotted to him at birth, to come without labor into a wealth of treasure.

But this is far from the accepted opinion. As a matter of fact, the farmer cleaves the earth with deep-driven plough; stripped he ploughs, stripped he sows; stripped in the glowing heat he thrashes on the floor the parched ears. The merchant, impatient when the east winds are blowing, ploughs the sea often when the course is unsafe. Insolent and rash men such as these are condemned by the prophet, who says, Be ashamed, O Sidon, the sea speaks. That is to say, if dangers do not move you, then shame can check and modesty confound you. Be ashamed, O Sidon, in which there is no place for virtue, no care for safety, no young men exercised in arms and ready to fight in defense of their country. They are anxiously and entirely preoccupied with gain and the benefits derived from commerce.

To convince you of this, return again to the sea, and observe its depths, its extent, its division into bays, its shores, its port, the islands in its midst, the kinds of fishes in it and their species, shapes, variety and fondness for the shore. . . .

Since journeying by land is fraught with difficulty and the satisfaction of all our needs on such journeys is not only difficult but impossible, the surface of the sea is there to take vessels, small and large, and to provide much necessary cargo for those in short supply. A single frigate can be seen taking as much as many thousand beasts. To ease the burden for seafarers the Creator made islands as ports in which they could call, rest, buy their needs and then set sail again for their destination. Be ashamed then at this multitude of blessings, said the sea.

For the words of the prophet apply more to you than to Sidon. For Sidon, ignoring the Creator, divided the divinity into many gods, mutilated the monotheistic form of worship and extended it to nonexistent deities, not indeed denying providence but ascribing it also to these false gods. For it would not offer sacrifice to these false gods unless it had fully persuaded itself that they provide assistance and avert disaster. But you who have been delivered from the error of polytheism and agree that all visible things are created; you, who adore their Creator, banish him from his creatures, set him completely outside his creation, assert that such an ordered universe is without a pilot and is borne about aimlessly like a ship without ballast. Be ashamed, then, at the blessings received from the sea, from the earth, from the air, from the sun and the sky that affords a roof over our heads. Respect the tribute you receive from creation.

Sidon is brought to shame, as it were, by the voice of the sea, when the life of one who is fortified and supposedly steadfast is reprobated in comparison with the lives of those who are worldly and are being tossed about in this world. For often there are those who, returning to the Lord after their sins of the flesh, evince themselves the more zealous in doing good works, as they realize they were worthy of condemnation for their deeds. And often certain people who persevere in preserving the integrity of the flesh, on perceiving that they have less to deplore, think to themselves that the innocence of their lives is sufficient and do not arouse themselves by zealously striving to be fervent in spirit.

Therefore, after being so often ploughed by returning merchants, Be ashamed, O Sidon, has said the sea. This is the voice of the fatigued element, as it were, saying, Be ashamed, Sidon; that is: Merchant, you accuse my waves although you yourself are more restless than they. Blush indeed for shame since you are not disturbed by peril. More modest are the winds than your desires. They have their rests; never do your cravings for gain take holiday. Even when the weather is quiet, never are your ships quiet. The water is churned under the oar when it is at rest from the blast. I have not been in labor, it says, nor have I reared, nor have I nourished up young men. Why do they disquiet me whom I do not know, whom I do not acknowledge?

Divine Providence has compassed us about and cut off all excuse. All openings to people’s equivocating arts are in every way closed. A Gentile, one without the law, is brought forward to confound the iniquity of those that are under the law; which is well and summarily shown by the prophet, when he says, Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea. For in Sidon we have a figure of the steadfastness of those settled upon the foundation of the law, and in the sea of the life of the Gentiles. Accordingly, Be ashamed, O Sidon, says the sea, because the life of those under the law is convicted by the life of Gentiles, and the conduct of people in a state of religion is put to confusion by the conduct of those living in the world, so long as the first do not, even under vows, observe what they hear enjoined in precepts. The latter by their manner of life keep those ways so that they are not in any wise bound by legal enactments.

Howl, he says—he repeats it—O you ships of Carthage, for your strength is laid waste. And it shall come to pass in that day, Tyre shall be abandoned; and below, but after seventy years, Tyre shall be as the song of a harlot. Behold what words the prophet employs, and how he does not avoid the baseness of words of this kind. We ourselves sometimes avoid them, not because our tongue is more chaste than theirs, but our authority inferior. For very great is the force of words in the vivid exposition of such things, so that they who do not blush at their sins blush at least at the names of their sins. Tyre shall be, he says, as the song of a harlot. Beware, lest, when someone sees those dances being performed, and unseemly words being sung, he says, Behold, Tyre has become the song of a harlot.

Furthermore, the Hebrews claim that Tarshish generally represents the sea, as in the psalms: With a violent wind, you will destroy the ships of Tarshish,^[1] that is, the sea, and in Isaiah: Wail, ships of Tarshish. I recall speaking about this several years ago in a letter to Marcella. The prophet, therefore, was not seeking to flee to a specific place,^[2] but he was hastening to continue toward wherever it was the sea would take him. Indeed, a terrified fugitive is rightly more interested in seizing the first opportunity to sail than he is in selecting a place of refuge. This also we are able to say: he who thought that God is known in Judea only and that his name is great in Israel only,^[3] once he felt him in the waves of the sea, confessed and said, I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord of heaven who made the sea and the dry land.^[4] But if he made the sea and the dry land, how can you who abandoned the dry land think it possible to avoid the Creator of the sea in the midst of the sea? At the same time, the salvation and conversion of the sailors taught him that the great multitude at Nineveh could also be saved by confessing like he did.

We are able to say of our Lord and Savior that he left his native homeland, assumed flesh and, in a manner of speaking, fled from heaven and came to Tarshish. That is, [he came] to the sea of this world, about which it is said elsewhere: This is the sea, great and vast, where there are creatures without number and animals both small and large. Ships navigate there with the dragon whom you formed to play in it.^[5]

This Tyre also lay waste seventy years like Jerusalem, which sat in desolation seventy years.

Now we see that Tyre was inhabited and was opulent after it had wandered seventy years, and after it had received the reward of its prostitutions.

To seek out the exact form of the reading, I gave my attention to the translation of Aquila, which says, And it will happen that its commerce and wages are consecrated to the Lord. Thus the Hebrew has, precisely, commerce and wages without the articles, not, according to the Septuagint, the commerce and the wages, by which it appears to mean all the commerce and all the wages. According to Aquila, Its commerce and wages are consecrated to the Lord. Not its whole commerce or its whole wages, but a part of the commerce and a part of the wages are consecrated to the Lord. And this is what has been fulfilled in our day. For the church of God is established in the city of Tyre, as indeed in the rest of the nations, and many of the wages in it and what is stored up for business are offered to the church and consecrated to the Lord. The things that people bring, they offer in piety, not for themselves in order to enjoy the gifts offered to God but for those who dwell before the Lord. (Namely, [these gifts are] for those who serve at the altar, for the Lord had enjoined that those who preach the gospel should live by the gospel and those who serve at the altar share in the sacrificial offerings.^[1])