Commentaria in Deuteronomium
Secondly, this fire is said to be kindled “in the wrath of the Lord:” because its author is the wrath of the Lord, that is, the will and firm purpose of punishing the wicked in a horrible and unheard-of manner, such as wrath is wont to suggest. For anger and wrath in God are not passions, as in us, but a tranquil and reasonable will, yet most keen and most efficacious, and omnipotent, to inflict eternal punishments: and so, since its effect equals and even surpasses all fury, it is rightly called fury.
Thirdly, that this fire “shall burn even to the lowest parts of hell,” as if to say: That fire shall not only here on earth seize and envelop the wicked (when the Lord shall judge the world), but shall burn also in hell, and in the lowest abyss of the earth, to all eternity.
Fourthly, that this fire “shall devour the earth,” that is, the whole soil and surface of the earth, and whatever springs from the earth, namely all trees, forests, crops, herbs; and all houses, fortresses, palaces, cities, towers, and all the wealth contained in them, it will reduce to ashes and cinders, 2 Peter, last chapter, verses 10 and 12.
Fifthly, that this fire shall also burn “the foundations of the mountains,” sunk very deep, both because it will consume metals, gems and all wealth contained in the bowels of the earth; and because it will by its force dissolve all mixed bodies, and reduce them to their first and simple principles; this is what the Psalmist sings, Psalm xcvi: “The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of all the earth;” and Judith xvi: “The mountains shall be moved from the foundations with the waters; the rocks shall melt as wax at thy presence.” We know that stones are melted by immense heat, and run like a fiery torrent from the mountains over the plains; such will this fire be: think on it when thou sinnest. “Who shall dwell with devouring fire? who shall dwell with everlasting burnings?”
St. Prosper describes the pains of hell in few but vigorous words, book III On the Contemplative Life: “Continual groaning,” he says, “eternal torment, utmost grief, penal sense, torture souls and do not wring them out; they punish bodies and do not end them; the fire does not quench those assigned to it, that while the life of feeling remains the punishment may remain, and may hold, fettered in eternal bodies, more to suffer than to live, those whom in living flames the immortality of the second death slays.” This fire that holy Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chap. xliv, continually set before himself, saying: “For my sins I have adjudged myself to hell, and say: Be with those with whom thou art worthy; soon thou shalt be numbered with them. I see therefore there equal groans and unceasing tears. I behold them gnashing their teeth, and leaping with the whole body, and trembling from head to foot. I see also a sea of seething fire, immeasurable, surging around and roaring, so that some think the waves of the fire reach to heaven, and in that dread sea innumerable men cast down, and all with one voice crying out and howling together, such howlings and voices as none on earth ever heard, and burning like all dry brushwood; and the mercy of God turning away from them. And then I lament the race of men, that dares to speak, or give heed to anything, such evils being laid up for the world. And on these I hold my mind, meditating mourning, judging myself unworthy of heaven and earth.”
23. AND I WILL SPEND MY ARROWS AMONG THEM.—“I will spend,” that is, I will fully send, “arrows,” that is, all my vengeances and plagues.
24. THEY SHALL BE CONSUMED WITH FAMINE.—The Chaldee renders, they shall be burnt with famine.
AND BIRDS SHALL DEVOUR THEM.—For birds, the Hebrew is resceph, which generally signifies everything that by flying burns, kindles and inflames; for by metathesis it alludes to saraph, that is, to kindle, to burn: though St. Jerome renders resceph, creeping on the belly, as if by another metathesis resceph alluded to raphas, or ramas, that is, to creep.
Hence the Septuagint, as well as the Chaldee, Symmachus, Aquila, Theodotion and the Fifth edition, render resceph bird, or winged thing, St. Jerome testifying that the Hebrews say resceph is also the name of a demon, who for swiftness and ranging about is called bird and winged creature; whence in Habacuc iii, 5, our Interpreter for resceph renders devil.
Hence, secondly, resceph signifies fire, or lightnings, which like birds run most swiftly and burn, as in Psalm lxxvii, 48.
Thirdly, resceph signifies fiery arrows, which soldiers shoot mightily and swiftly from bows, to set houses and cities on fire.
I will send upon them wild beasts, as wolves, lions, bears, tigers. That God sent lions upon the Israelites worshipping idols sacred history teaches, 4 Kings.
WITH THE FURY OF CREATURES THAT TRAIL UPON THE GROUND, AND OF SERPENTS.—In Hebrew, with the fury of serpents in the dust, that is, with venomous and raging serpents, which creep and are dragged foully upon the ground to the horror of beholders, that they may rage against them, bite and tear them.
Ver. 26, 27, from the Hebrew seem to be rendered thus: I said, I will scatter them, I will blot out their memory from among men.
28. THEY ARE A NATION VOID OF COUNSEL.—In Hebrew the particle ki, that is, because, is prefixed; whence Vatablus thinks that here the reason of the preceding is given, why, namely, the enemies of Israel were proud, and said: “Our own high hand, and not the Lord, hath done all these things,” because they themselves are a nation void of counsel, understanding and prudence. But the Hebrew ki is often redundant, and only begins the sentence. Wherefore our Interpreter rightly omitted it; whence we shall better refer these things to the Israelites themselves: for against these Moses here continually thunders.
AND WOULD PROVIDE FOR THEIR LAST END!—Vatablus and Abulensis go on to refer this to the enemies of the Jews, as if to say: If these enemies had been prudent, they would have understood that it was done not by their strength, but by mine, that is, God’s, that I afflicted and destroyed this my nation, namely the Jews, not they: they would moreover have understood what end, or issue, awaits them; they would have understood that the same things would befall them for their own sins which befell my nation, says Vatablus. For thus the Assyrians, because they boasted that they had destroyed the Israelites, were therefore destroyed by the Chaldeans; in turn the Chaldeans, because they boasted that they had destroyed Juda, were therefore wiped out by the Persians and Medes, says Abulensis.
But, as I said a little before, Moses here is not concerned with the enemies of the Jews, but with the Jews themselves: for these, though future, he here pricks and spurs with the fear of the last things, that they may return from idols to God, from transgression to penance and the law of God; as if to say: O that the Jews, afflicted by enemies and by so many plagues sent upon them by me, would return to their heart, come to their senses, understand what it is to sin against God; and foresee what is to befall them in the last time, and what the reward of their sin and impiety will be, both in this and in the future life, or rather death and hell! For, as the Wise Man says: “Remember thy last end, and thou shalt never sin.” O how wise are they who put these things before their own eyes and those of others again and again!
Rightly Abbot Alexander said to a brother overcome by acedia: “If in thy cell thou wouldst carefully think on the kingdom of heaven and on eternal torment, in thy cell thou wouldst not feel acedia.” Witness Sophronius, or rather John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chap. cxlii. Again chap. clxix, Alexander thus rouses himself: “Woe to thee, Alexander! how great will be thy confusion when the others shall be crowned!”
And chap. clvi, an old man said to two philosophers asking of him a word of edification: “You are students of eloquence, not true philosophers; for how long do you learn to speak, as though you knew not how to speak? Let it be the work of your philosophy ever to meditate on death, and accustom yourselves to silence and quiet.”
Abbot Silvanus, in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, once covered his face and wept; asked why, he said: “I was rapt to judgment, and I saw many of our habit going to torments, and many seculars going to the kingdom.” And the old man mourned, and thereafter would not go out of his cell; but if he was compelled to go out, he covered his face with his hood, saying: “What need is there to see this temporal light, in which is nothing useful?”
In the same place, a monk who had lived negligently, falling sick, was rapt to judgment, and found his mother, already dead, among those who were being judged. But she, when she saw him, was amazed and said to him: What is this, son? art thou too commanded to come to this place of condemnation? where are thy words which thou didst speak, saying: I will save my soul? Confounded, and returning to himself, he shut himself in, doing penance and weeping for his negligence: and when many asked him to moderate his excessive weeping lest he hurt himself, he would not be consoled, saying: “If I could not bear my mother’s reproach, how shall I be able to bear on the day of judgment the confusion before Christ and His holy angels against me?”
In the same place another old man said: “If it were possible at the coming of God after the resurrection for the souls of men to perish for fear, the whole world would die of terror and dread. For what is it to see the heavens rent, and God revealed with wrath and indignation, and innumerable hosts of angels, and the whole race of men gazing at once? Wherefore we ought to live here as those who must render account to God for each of our motions.”