Let each one weigh his words without fraud and deceit: A deceitful balance is an abomination before the Lord. I do not mean that balance which weighs out another’s pay (in trivial matters the flesh is deceitful). Before God that balance of words is detestable which simulates the weight of sober gravity while practicing at the same time cunning fraud. God condemns especially the man who deceives his neighbor with treacherous injustice. He will have no gain from his clever skill. For what does it profit a man if he gains the wealth of the whole world but defrauds his own soul of the payment of eternal life?^[1]

Where there is pride, there will also be disgrace because the proud conduct themselves disgracefully through contempt or ignorance of discipline, or because they bring disgrace upon their neighbors, or, in any event, because all who exalt themselves will be humbled.^[1]

[Solomon] leads toward understanding especially when he says, Possessions are of no advantage in the day of wrath. For he infused your heart with the knowledge that an abundance of money will be of no help to you in that day, nor will it remove eternal punishment. And when he says, The innocent will inherit the earth,^[1] he clearly means the earth of which the meek are also heirs, for first the psalmist said, But the meek will inherit the earth,^[2] and then the Lord, when preaching about beatitude, said, Blessed are the meek, for they will possess the earth.^[3]

I know why it is written: Wealth will not profit in the day of wrath. This was said about the one who does not employ his wealth for mercy. Is not the power of wealth to be brought forth and used at a time of need? At the hour in which you return your spirit to the hands of God, you will understand that the full utility of your riches is to use them for the sake of mercy. For they were given to you by Jesus Christ, God and the Son of God.

To be repeatedly requesting forgiveness for offenses repeatedly committed is not repentance, only its appearance. The righteousness of the blameless keeps their way straight, proclaims Scripture, and again, The righteousness of the innocent will set straight their way.

When a right-eous man dies, hope does not perish. He hopes that his children will do well; he hopes to be provided with great things. This passage also transports us to thoughts of the resurrection or of our posterity. Or, since one who is righteous has delighted in all these things already, he will also enjoy their future consummation; or, finally, that he would have enjoyment of glory after death.

Lest you think that a friend’s crime which you are unable to correct should be concealed, it rightly says that a people are corrupted without a governor but are saved where there is abundant counsel. [This is said] in order to show that the deed you are unable to amend alone should be revealed to many, so that it may be corrected by the unanimous diligence of all.

Prayer rises up quickly to the ears of God when lifted up by the recommendation of [alms and fasting]. Since, as it has been written, the merciful man benefits his own soul, nothing belongs to each individual more than what has been spent on one’s neighbor. Part of those physical resources which are used to help the poor become transformed into eternal riches. Born from this generosity are funds which will not be able to be diminished through use nor damaged through decay. Blessed are the merciful, for God will have mercy on them.^[1] He who constitutes the very exemplar of this precept will also be the sum of their reward.

Reason also forbids us to do violence to nature by piercing the lobes of the ear. Why not pierce the nostrils also? The Scriptures would then be accomplished indeed: As a ring in the nose of the swine, so is beauty in a foolish woman. To conclude, if anyone thinks he is decorated when he wears gold, then he is less than his gold, and he who is less than gold is not its master.

Let eagerness for virginity be put down as the foundation for the life of virtue, but let there be built upon this foundation all the products of virtue. If this is believed to be precious and befitting to God, as it is, but one’s whole life does not conform to it and is stained by the rest of the soul’s disorder, then this is the golden ring in the swine’s snout or the pearl trampled under the feet of the swine.^[1]

As for those who seem to have some semblance of knowledge and those who do not abandon the sins of the flesh even when they apply themselves diligently to the reading and memorizing of Scripture, Proverbs has the following well-put statement: The beauty of a woman of evil ways is like a golden ring in the snout of a pig. What use is it for a man to possess the jewel of heaven’s words and to give himself over to that most precious loveliness of Scripture if he himself is stuck fast in muddied works and thoughts?

What is a holy appellation without merit but an ornament set in the mud? The holy Scriptures have testified to this in writing: A golden ring in a swine’s snout, a woman fair and foolish. And in us the appellation Christian is like a golden ornament. If we use it unworthily, we seem to be swine with an ornament.

It is written, Men speak evil of him who withholds wheat. One who withholds is without mercy. He does not gather for the sake of mercy. For, unless he gathers, with what can he bestow mercy? Is it not also true that men bless the person who expends and gives, as it is written here and there in the pages of sacred Scripture?^[1]

It is well said by Solomon, He that hides corn shall be cursed among the people. To hide corn is to retain with oneself the words of sacred preaching. And everyone that does so is cursed among the people, because through fault of his silence he is condemned in the punishment of the many whom he could have corrected.

He who does not think of the future because he is longing for present goods will finally be lacking in both. But they who do good deeds in the present for the hope of future rewards will justly receive that for which they hope. The green leaf in the tree that does not yet have fruit to display surely signifies the future. And the righteous flourish like green leaves because, having been saved in hope through faith,^[1] they do not cease to make progress in virtue by grace until they attain the fruit of their desired reward.

The fruit of righteousness and the tree of life is Christ. He alone, as man, fulfilled all righteousness. And with his own underived life^[1] he has brought forth the fruits of knowledge and virtue like a tree, whereof they that eat shall receive eternal life and shall enjoy the tree of life in paradise, with Adam and all the righteous. But the souls of the unrighteous meet an untimely expulsion from the presence of God, by whom they shall be left to remain in the flame of torment.

If the right-eous are saved with difficulty, where will the impious and sinners appear? Consider that life is long, a lasting residence with many dangers. And he [Solomon] does not say these words about those who lived righteously. But if by any chance he said something about them, he would speak in the best of terms. Indeed if God has bestowed something upon us, what we have done with it will be examined, and who will be justified except the one who is purer than the sun? By righteous he [Solomon] means the one who organizes his life in righteousness. The one who hates God is impious. The sinner is the one who acts wickedly.

Conversion from both impiety and iniquity is commanded. For both provoke the wrath of God against one, because God detests and condemns both, as Paul says, The wrath of God is indeed being revealed from heaven against every impiety and human wickedness.^[1] And Solomon says, as the blessed Peter had also inserted among his own words, And if the righteous one is barely saved, when will the godless and the sinner appear?^[2]

If the righteous receives [retribution] on earth, how much more the wicked and sinner? This is to say clearly, If the frailty of mortal life is so great that not even the righteous who are to be crowned in heaven pass through this life without tribulations on account of the countless slips of [our] flawed nature, how much more do those who are cut off from heavenly grace await the certain outcome of their everlasting damnation?