On Psalm LXXVII. Or
LXXVIII.
45. He sent the dog-fly among them, and consumed
them; and the frog, and destroyed them.
46. He gave also their fruits to the mildew, and
their labours to the locust.
47. He destroyed their vine with hail, and their
sycamines with frost.
Now, just as, in consequence of an irregular mode
of living, a deadly bilious humour may be formed in the inwards, which
the physician by his art may bring on to be a sick-vomiting, without
being himself chargeable with producing the sick humour in the
man’s body; for excess in diet was what produced it, while the
physician’s science only made it show itself; so, although it may
be said that the painful retribution that falls upon those who are by
choice wicked comes from God, it would be only in accordance with right
reason, to think that ills of that kind find both their beginnings and
their causes in ourselves. For to one who lives without sin there
is no darkness, no worm, no hell (Gehenna), no fire, nor any other of
these words or things of terror; just as the plagues of Egypt were not
for the Hebrews,—those fine lice annoying with invisible bites, the dog-fly fastening on the body with its painful sting, the hurricanes from heaven falling upon them with hailstones, the husbandman’s labours devoured by the locusts, the darkened sky, and the rest. It is God’s counsel, indeed, to tend the true vine, and to destroy the Egyptian, while sparing those who are to “eat the grape of gall, and drink the deadly venom of asps.” And the sycamine of Egypt is utterly destroyed; not, however, that one which Zaccheus climbed that he might be able to see my Lord. And the fruits of Egypt are wasted, that is, the works of the flesh, but not the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, and peace.
48. He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and
their substance to the fire.
Symmachus renders it: “Who gave up
their cattle to the plague, and their possessions to
birds.” For, having met an overwhelming overthrow, they
became a prey for carnivorous birds. But, according to the
Seventy, the sense is not that the hail destroyed their cattle, and the
fire the rest of their substance, but that hail, falling in an
extraordinary manner along with fire, destroyed utterly their vines and
sycamines first of all, which were entirely unable to stand out against
the first attack; then the cattle which grazed on the plains; and then
every herb and tree, which the fire accompanying the hail consumed; and
the affair was altogether portentous, as fire ran with the water, and
was commingled with it. “For fire ran in the hail,” he says; and it was thus hail, and fire burning in the hail. David also calls the cattle and the fruit of the trees “substance,” or “riches.” And it should be observed that, though the hail is recorded to have destroyed every herb and every tree, yet there were left some which the locust, as it came upon them after the fiery hail, consumed; of which it is said, that it eats up every herb, and all the fruit of the trees which the hail left behind it. Now, in a spiritual sense, there are some sheep belonging to Christ, and others belonging to the Egyptians. Those, however, which once belonged to others may become His, as the sheep of Laban became Jacob’s; and contrariwise. Whichever of the sheep, moreover, Jacob rejected, he made over to Esau. Beware, then, lest, being found in the flock of Jesus, you be set apart when gifts are sent to Esau, and be given over to Esau as reprobate and unworthy of the spiritual Jacob. The single-minded are the sheep of Christ, and these God saves according to the word: “O Lord, Thou preservest man and beast.” They who in their folly attach themselves to godless doctrine, are the sheep of the Egyptians, and these, too, are destroyed by the hail. And whatsoever the Egyptians possess is given over to the fire, but Abraham’s substance is given to Isaac.
49. He discharged upon them the wrath of His
anger;—anger, and wrath, and tribulation, a visitation by evil
angels.