{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4056","native_reference":{"book_number":250,"chapter_from":10,"chapter_to":10,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":5,"verse_to":5},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Jerome</b>: \"There<br/>is an evil that I have observed in the world as if it were an error proceeding<br/>from the ruler: folly is placed on lofty heights, while rich men sit in low<br/>places. I have seen slaves on horses and<br/>nobles walking on foot like slaves. \"Where we read \"as if it were an error<br/>proceeding from the ruler\" Aquila, Theodotion and the Septuagint have<br/>interpreted this as \"as if not of their own will\", that is \"hos akousian\", from the face of the<br/>ruler. Symmachus agrees with this,<br/>saying, \"the fool is placed in great elevation, but humble riches remain<br/>fixed.\" And he remembers that he has<br/>seen this wickedness in this time, because the judgement of God seems to be<br/>unjust. And it happens either through<br/>not knowing, or without his will, that either in the rulers of the world, or in<br/>the leadership of the Church, often these men, who are rich in words and<br/>wisdom, rich too in good deeds, remain ignoble and foolish holding a position<br/>in the Church. But this happens in front<br/>of his face, he who has power in that time, while he oppresses the powerful and<br/>learned men, and he does not let them come out in public, but those whom he<br/>knows to be foolish in the Church he makes greater, so that the blind are led<br/>by the blind into pitfalls. The<br/>following verse also has this meaning: \"I have seen slaves on horses and<br/>nobles walking on foot like slaves\". <br/>Because these men are slaves of vices and sins, or are so humble, that<br/>they are thought to be slaves by other men, they are suddenly inflated by the<br/>devil's pompousness, and they wear out the public roads with their ponies [Cfr. Horat. Epod. IV, 14.]. And each noble or wise man that is oppressed<br/>by poverty takes the road and occupation of slaves. The Hebrew seems to say that ignorance seems<br/>to leave the face of the powerful and rulers. <br/>He explains this as God, because men think that in this inequality of<br/>matter He is not acting justly, and judging as is correct. More precisely, some men believe as their<br/>predecessors do that there must be judgement so that He himself is powerful, a<br/>topic that is mentioned before these verses: if a ruler comes up against you,<br/>do not give way. Should we not be sad<br/>therefore if we seem to be humble in this world, and know from the face of the<br/>devil, that the foolish are raised and the rich thrown down? If we know that<br/>slaves have the ranks of their masters and rulers do the work of their<br/>slaves. Remember though that this horse<br/>is seen in a good context, just as in the verse, which says, \"and riding<br/>will be your salvation\". [Hab. 3, 8.]<br/><i>— Commentary on Ecclesiastes</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"c17a4a8a6b8ff5160d32c6b38c44a7ac4e036a087a90af71f49728a1f4fdf5be","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4056,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"219edd4cd41d7f510766b90993f87baa31b6ebe163a4f9b359e9fea974ee8d49","translator":null,"work":null}