I will send hornets ahead of you, and they will drive out from your presence the Hivites, the Canaanites and the Hittites.^[1] We ask ourselves what these hornets might mean. God in fact makes this promise, and the book of Wisdom affirms that it occurred, saying, And he sent them wasps as the vanguard of his army. But we do not find it written that this took place, neither in the time of Moses, nor under Joshua, nor under the judges nor under the kings. But perhaps these wasps indicate the sting of the fear of understanding that prodded the peoples mentioned so that they would leave their land to the children of Israel. God in fact speaks, and if something is said figuratively in his words that did not take place in the proper sense, this does not preclude putting faith in the account, from which one perceives the truth of the narration. Likewise, neither does the Gospel account lose its historicity if something is said there about Christ in a figurative sense.

We look over all the generations, and we note that from generation to generation the Master gave room for repentance for all those who wanted to turn to him. Noah preached repentance, and all who listened to him were saved.^[1] Jonah predicted the destruction of the Ninevites, but, repentant for their sins, God looked favorably on them, and they received salvation, though they were foreigners to God.^[2] 1

The God who judges little by little those he punishes gives space for repentance. By not punishing all at once for the sin, he delays the consummation of the punishment for the sinner.^[1] He thus punishes, judging little by little. We have an example of this in Leviticus. In the curses against those who transgress the Law, after the first punishments it is written, The Lord says, if you do not repent after these things, I will multiply my blows sevenfold.^[2] And again he sets forth another punishment, And if, despite these punishments, you do not want to correct yourselves and turn to me but oppose yourselves to me, I will also oppose you with fury.^[3] You will note that God metes out punishments stingily, as it were, since he wants to lead the sinner to conversion instead of making him pay for everything all at once. With respect to the text, then, these are the things that befell the people. And threatening them with how much they might have suffered afterward, the Word says, And yet in those days, I will not wholly destroy you.^[4]

In the time of judgment, which is to say always, he judges everyone, sometimes calling this time the time of judgment,^[1] sometimes the day of wrath^[2] and the day of rendering account.^[3] Until this punishment arrives, while the punishment has not yet come,^[4] repent. There is room for repentance. The Lord does not delay in fulfilling his promise, as some believe, but is patient toward you, not wanting that anyone should perish but that all should come to repentance.^[5] Since therefore an extension is given to you for repentance, repent before the punishment comes.^[6]

Why would it have been written, Their offspring was accursed from the beginning? In fact, it was not said in the same sense in which we read, offspring of Canaan and not of Judah,^[1] where it was shown to what persons they had become similar and from what persons they had degenerated. Rather, it called accursed the offspring of those very people whom it wanted us to understand to be naturally evil, as are all of the children of Adam. From among these, by grace, children of God are made.^[2]

We are all descendants of Adam, according to an order of succession that has reached to us. Nor are the works of God to be understood allegorically: Adam did exist, the fig leaves existed, the fig tree,^[1] the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree set in the middle of the garden,^[2] the serpent,^[3] the disobedience, the obedience.^[4] The rivers existed,^[5] as did Eve. And everything was truly made by God, because to him all things are possible,^[6] he who can make corruptible things incorruptible and earthly things perfect in incorruptibility. No one should wonder at this. Indeed, he gave us proof of this when he clothed his divinity with corruptible flesh, to offer us a model of incorruptibility in the flesh he assumed. Who will oppose what he has done? Let us now examine another exegetical aspect. The Scripture says that God cast them out of the garden, placing two cherubim with flaming swords to guard the entrance to the tree of life, so that Adam and Eve took up their dwelling opposite the garden, barred from Paradise.^[7] But this notwithstanding—let no one deceive you with empty words—God, who can raise up his children from stones,^[8] was able to change corruptible beings into incorruptible, and he can do so at any time that he wants to make of the earth a place of peace, a paradise. In fact, earth and heaven do not have a different God, but everything is his, and he lavishes the gift of incorruptibility on every being as he wishes.

The liberating grace of God appeals to us on every page of Scripture, so that we would entrust ourselves to it. And this psalm, of which we have begun to speak, by your leave, sings of it. May the Lord help us, so that grace would be given us to understand it as we should and to describe it according to your needs. In this, the love and the fear of God greatly urge us on. The fear of God, because he is just. The love of God, because he is merciful. Who, in fact, could remonstrate with him if he were to condemn the godless? How great, then, is his mercy when he justifies the godless!

Why did he not say in wrath but as in wrath?^[1] Because God does everything with absolute tranquility. Indeed, it is also written, You, master of strength, judge with gentleness. Therefore, even when he threatens he does not become angry, nor is he disturbed in any way. It calls him angry because he punishes and does justice. Similarly, people who do not want to amend their lives are as though they were alive, but they do not live, because vengeance for the first sin, and for those that they have added, hangs over them. This vengeance is called the wrath of God, because it proceeds from God’s judgment. Thus the Lord says of the one who does not believe, but the wrath of God hangs over him.^[2] We also, being born mortal, were under the wrath of God. Therefore the apostle says, We were once by nature deserving of wrath, like the others.^[3] What does by nature deserving of wrath mean, if not that we carry with us the wrath of the first sin? But if we convert, wrath ceases, and grace is offered to us. If, however, you do not want to convert, you add other offenses to the ones you were born with. And, as in wrath, you will be devoured even in the present time.

How is it that it is written, Power is in your hands whenever you want, as if God needs a period of time to carry out some work? Or, rather, are all things accomplished by God (as we say) like an artist thinks out a design—not over an extended period of time—but by that power that accomplishes in an enduring way even those things that we see are not enduring but passing? Even with our own speech, when some words pass away while others follow, we should not think that the same thing happens with the thought that gave rise to the expression we just finished.^[1] Consequently, although God, who exercises power when he wishes, accomplishes his works without the passage of time, nonetheless temporal natures themselves carry out their movements within time.

With respect to existence and power, the Trinity is everywhere, wholly one God, filling all things with his power, not by his mass but wholly in each creature, and simultaneously wholly in all creatures. Regarding our thoughts, it is said that God descends to our level when he divinely moderates his word in such a way that he condescends to communicate his knowledge and love to us, speaking to us in a human way. Conversely, he rises in us when we ascend in charity and knowledge of the divinity, learning not to look for anything local in him who is infinite, or think that there is anything lowly in him who is sublime, or believe that there is anything changeable in God or think that there is anything temporary in him who is eternal.

This is the way we are to understand the manifestation of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, it is said that God rested in the beginning after having finished the creation of the world,^[1] although he was not fatigued by his work, because he accomplished everything solely by his will. To him it was said, You exercise power when you wish, as we hear in the psalm, Whatever the Lord wishes he does, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all the depths.^[2]

Abraham, father of us all, as the apostle says,^[1] did not doubt God’s promise in unbelief but was strengthened in faith and gave glory to God, fully convinced that what he had promised, he was also able to do.^[2] There is therefore no falsehood whatsoever in God’s promises,^[3] since no obstacle can stand before the action of the Almighty. And consequently, the effect of his will can ever fail, since we discover that his will itself is nothing other than his power. He who can do whatever he wants can want anything. Only of him, then, can it be truly said, Whatever he wanted, he did.^[4] And further, You exercise power when you wish. For this reason we said that in him there is as much power of the will as there is the will itself of the power. Since power always accompanies his will, in him will and power are one. In fact, just as God is not constrained by any necessity to promise what he does not want to do, so he is not impeded by anything in doing what he has promised to a lesser degree than he wants to or to delay its realization.

By the word of his might he established all things, and by his word he can overthrow them. “Who shall say unto him, ‘What have you done?’ or, ‘Who shall resist the power of his strength?’ ” [Wis 12:12].

The Greeks did nothing other than design in the images of the gods their peculiar passions, almost so as to be able to contemplate them with their eyes. The bloodthirsty person called his passion Ares. The adulterer and the adulteress, promiscuous Aphrodite. The tyrant, winged Victory. The squalid person, entirely caught up in lust for possessions, designed Cronus as his archetype. The effeminate, Cybele, also known as Rhea, I believe because of the flowing moods of sexual contact.^[1] Those who are always breathlessly moving about portrayed as their type Artemis the hunter. The drunkard, Dionysus. The one who faced many difficulties, Heracles. One who had sexual intercourse with anyone, Zeus and Apollo. But it is pointless to enumerate all the passions that agitate human beings. Indeed, the Egyptians deviated from the truth more than anyone, not only worshiping their passions but also exchanging the supreme Orderer^[2] for winged creatures and four-legged animals, for wild and ferocious animals of land and sea—in short, with the beasts that the God of holiness had given them to serve them. They deviated more than others because, in a completely irrational way, they divinized the animals of their region. Even now they are not ashamed to worship the barking dog or the polecat who eats reptiles, the goat, symbol of incontinence, and the sheep, symbol of weakness, or the huge, terribly sad crocodile, or the ibis that feeds on poison, the kite and the sparrow hawk, or the crow, which seems the most despicable of all animals, and the serpent, who deviously slithers and is totally disgusting.

For the one who does good, there are two judgments referred to in the Scriptures, one secret and the other manifest. The secret one takes place now, and the apostle Peter says of it, It is time for judgment to begin with the household of the Lord.^[1] It follows that the secret judgment is the pain by which each person is tormented now, so that he purifies himself, or by which he is admonished so that he converts or, if he has despised God’s calling and his teachings, he remains blind to damnation. The manifest judgment is rather that by which the Lord, when he comes, will judge the living and the dead,^[2] when all will know that it is he who assigns rewards to the good and torments to the wicked. But then, such a confession will not be a remedy for evils but a storing up of condemnation. It seems to me that the Lord spoke of these two judgments when he said, The one who believes in me will pass from death to life and will not be judged,^[3] that is, in the manifest judgment. In fact, the passing from death to life by means of the various sufferings with which God chastises every child he receives^[4] is precisely the secret judgment. The one who does not believe, rather, is already judged,^[5] that is, in this secret judgment he has already made himself ready to undergo the manifest one. We also read of these two judgments in Wisdom, where it is written, As to reckless young people, therefore, you sent them a judgment to mock them. But those who were not corrected by this judgment experienced the just judgment of God. Therefore, those who do not correct themselves following this secret judgment of God will be punished as they deserve in the manifest one.

And if they were to repeat what the Son said? Those who know you, the one true God, and the one whom you have sent, Jesus Christ.^[1] Response: That the Son is true, just as the Father is, we demonstrate with the words of the prophets and the Gospels, since Isaiah says, But my servants will be called by another name, which will be blessed on the earth, and they will bless the true God. And those who swear on earth will swear by the true God.^[2] And in Solomon, They will be ashamed of those who believed that it was the gods who punished them. Seeing him whom they had previously denied, they recognized the true God.^[3] And in the psalm, Truth sprung up from the earth, and justice looked down from heaven.^[4] And the Lord in the Gospel, I am the way, the truth and the life.^[5] And in the same place, written of the Father, Your word is truth.^[6] Then in the letter of John the apostle, We know that the Son of God has come, and God has given us understanding to know what is true, and so that we would be in his true Son, Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.^[7] You must therefore acknowledge the unity of the Father and the Son, since the divine Scripture never fails to proclaim that, like the Father, the Son is true God.