Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Hear how great a sin detraction is. First, in Scripture: Ecclesiastes x, 11: “If a serpent bite in silence, he that backbiteth secretly is nothing better.” Proverbs xxiv, 9: “The detractor is the abomination of men”; and verse 21: “Meddle not with detractors, for their destruction shall rise suddenly.” Ecclesiasticus xxviii, 15: “The whisperer and the double-tongued is accursed, for he hath troubled many that were at peace.” Romans i, 30: “Detractors, hateful to God.” Finally Scripture everywhere compares the tongue of detractors to a sword, a sharp razor, arms and arrows. Secondly, from Doctors and Fathers who teach that detraction is a graver sin than theft and robbery: for it takes away reputation, which is better than gold. St. Jerome on Psalm C says it is worse than fornication. St. Peter, in Clement, epistle 4 to St. James, equals it to murder; for many prefer to lose life rather than fame. St. Chrysostom, homily 3 to the People: “Detracting,” he says, “thou hast eaten brotherly flesh, thou hast bitten the flesh of thy neighbour”; these are Thyestean banquets. St. Bernard, On the Threefold Guard of hand, tongue and heart, says the detracting tongue is a viper and a three-pronged lance, which with one stroke pierces three: the speaker, the hearer and him who is detracted. One says that the greatest part of men perish because of this crime. See more in Father Busæus in the Panarium, Canisius and Felix on the Decalogue.
21. THOU SHALT NOT COVET THY NEIGHBOUR’S WIFE.—Note: Concupiscence is forbidden by a special precept, because most men thought that by the sixth precept, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” and the seventh, “Thou shalt not steal,” only the external act is forbidden, but the internal is not forbidden nor to be avoided; nay even after the law was given by God, Josephus, Antiquities book XII, chapter xiii, seems to have thought so, as also other Jews, whom Christ corrects, Matthew v, 28 and 29, as though by this precept, “Thou shalt not covet,” only the external attempt to complete the crime were forbidden; but that is already forbidden by the sixth and seventh precepts; and that it is forbidden by this precept is not so much because it shows itself outwardly as because it proceeds from an evil will. For that, evil in itself (and therefore forbidden), instils the poison of its malice into the external act, and this is what these words properly signify and prohibit when it is said: “Thou shalt not covet.” Hence you may gather that every other motion of the will opposed to the other precepts is likewise forbidden by them, when the concupiscence of women and of goods, to which we are naturally most prone, is here forbidden.
The heretics Luther and Calvin are at the other extreme; for they hold that there is forbidden here the concupiscence which remains from original sin, namely the disordered motions of the sensitive appetite and of the will, which anticipate reason and the free assent of the will. But that this is false, and that only voluntary concupiscence, or the consent of the will to unlawful delights, is here forbidden, I showed at length on Romans vi, 12.
NOT HIS HOUSE, NOT HIS FIELD.—After the concupiscence of the wife forbidden by the ninth precept, in this tenth he forbids the concupiscence of another’s property: for I showed on verse 7 that these are to be distinguished. Here, then, the right order of the precepts is kept, which in Exodus xx, 17, is not kept, except by the Septuagint: for there Moses did not propose to keep the order, but only to rehearse the precepts themselves.
Morally, St. Thomas, Opusculum VII: “Concupiscence,” he says, “is forbidden, first, on account of the infinity of concupiscence; for concupiscence is something infinite. But every wise man ought to aim at some end, nay no one ought to go by an infinite way.
Ecclesiastes chapter v: “A covetous man shall not be satisfied with money.” Isaias chapter v: “Woe to you that join house to house, and lay field to field!” And the reason why concupiscence is never satisfied is that the heart of man was made to receive God. Hence Augustine, Confessions I: Thou hast made us for thyself, O Lord, and our heart is restless till it rest in thee. That which is less than God, therefore, cannot fill it; Psalm cii: Who satisfieth thy desire with good things. Second, because it takes away rest, which is very delightful. For the covetous are always anxious to acquire what they have not, and to guard what they have, Ecclesiastes v: The fulness of the rich will not suffer him to sleep; Matthew vi: Where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also; and therefore Christ, Luke viii, compared riches to thorns, as Gregory says. Third, because it causes uselessness in riches. For it makes riches useless, neither to himself nor to others. For they use them only by keeping them, Ecclesiasticus xiv: To a covetous and stingy man his substance is without reason; fourth, because it takes away the equity of justice, Exodus xxiii: Neither shalt thou take bribes, which blind even the wise, and pervert the words of the just; Ecclesiasticus xxxi: He that loveth gold shall not be justified; fifth, because it kills the charity of God and of neighbour; for according to Augustine the more a man has of charity, the less he has of covetousness; and conversely, Ecclesiasticus vii: Neither shalt thou despise a most dear brother for gold; it kills also the charity of God, because as no man can serve two masters, so neither God and mammon, as is said Matthew vi; sixth, because it produces all iniquity: for it is the root of all evils, and therefore if it be rooted in the heart, it works murder, and theft, and all evils, and therefore the Apostle says, 1 Timothy vi: They that will become rich fall into temptation, and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition. For covetousness is the root of all evils.” Moreover, how concupiscence is to be overcome he goes on thus:
“It is overcome in four ways: first, by fleeing external occasions, such as evil company, and all things that lead occasionally to this sin. Ecclesiasticus ix, 5: Gaze not upon a maid, lest her beauty be a stumblingblock to thee. Look not round about in the ways of the city, nor wander up and down in the streets thereof. Turn away thy face from a woman dressed up, and gaze not about upon another’s beauty. For many have perished by the beauty of a woman, and hereby lust is enkindled like a fire; Proverbs vi: Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? and therefore Lot was commanded to flee from all the country round about, Genesis xix. Secondly, by giving no entrance to thoughts, because they are an occasion of exciting concupiscence; and this is to be done by the affliction of the flesh, 1 Corinthians ix: I chastise my body, etc. Thirdly, by persevering in prayers, because unless the Lord keep the city, etc.; Wisdom viii: I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God give it; Matthew xvii: This kind of devils is not cast out but by prayer and fasting. For if two were fighting, and you wished to help one but not the other, you would have first to give help, and secondly to withdraw it. But between the spirit and the flesh there is a continual battle. Hence, if you wish the spirit to conquer, you must give it help, and this is done by prayer: but take away from the flesh, and this is done by fasting: for the flesh is weakened by fasting. Fourthly, by persevering in lawful occupations, Ecclesiasticus xxxiii: Idleness hath taught much evil; Ezechiel xvi: This was the iniquity of Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance, and idleness. St. Jerome: Always do something good, that the devil may find thee occupied; but among all occupations the study of the Scriptures is better. Jerome to Paulinus: Love the knowledge of the Scriptures, and thou shalt not love the vices of the flesh.”
These then are the ten precepts, by which, says St. Augustine, as by ten strings, ten beasts, that is, vices, are overcome; thou touchest the first string, that is, the first precept, and the beast of superstition falls; thou touchest the second, and the beast of perjury and of impious heresies falls; thou touchest the third, and the beast of love of the world falls; thou touchest the fourth, and the beast of impiety falls; thou touchest the fifth, and the beast of cruelty falls; thou touchest the sixth, and the beast of lust falls; thou touchest the seventh, and the beast of rapacity falls; thou touchest the eighth, and the beast of falsehood falls; thou touchest the ninth, and the beast of adulterous thought falls; thou touchest the tenth, and the beast of covetousness falls. Hence the parents of Samson, from the common opinion of men of that age, because they had seen the Lord, thought they would die, Judges xiii, 22. See what was said on Exodus xxxiii, 20.
Verse 31. BUT STAND THOU HERE WITH ME.—For Moses, while God was proclaiming the Decalogue, stood somewhat removed from the people on the ascent of Mount Sina: thence he was commanded by God to descend to the people, that to it
26. WHAT IS ALL FLESH, THAT IT SHOULD HEAR THE VOICE OF THE LIVING GOD, etc., AND BE ABLE TO LIVE?—As if to say: All man is nothing, and of no strength, that he could hear and bear so terrible a presence and voice of God without falling at once into failure of mind and of life, unless he be, as it were miraculously, strengthened and preserved by God. So Daniel, chapter x, says to the angel: “Lord, in thy sight my joints are loosed, and no strength hath remained in me.” For under that old law, which was of fear and of servants, God, or rather an angel in the place of God, is said to have shown himself terrible even to the Saints, as august, and to have struck them with awe.
Verse 32. YOU SHALL NOT TURN ASIDE EITHER TO THE RIGHT HAND OR TO THE LEFT.—because the keeping of the laws is the way to God, to heaven and to beatitude; hence Scripture gives it a right hand and a left.