CAPUT LVII. Quomodo, vel quam caute per exprobrationem peccati vel per exactionem debiti, debeat corrupta mens flagellari
The Swords of Simeon and Levi
The opening passage interprets Simeon and Levi's swords as reproach for evil done and exacting demand for good left undone, revealing the inner scourging of the mind.
But we have to consider again that often, even when they act forcefully, they go beyond the measure of right balance—something we can easily prove from this deed of theirs that we have right before us. For seizing their swords, they violently kill those bound to them by a pact of alliance, and for the violated chastity of one woman they made so sudden a slaughter of so many men. Simeon's sword is reproach; Levi's sword is exacting demand.1 For Simeon is used to reproaching the corrupted mind fiercely for the evil it has done; Levi, for his part, is used to demanding fiercely the good that ought to have been done. So what else is it for them to fight with these swords than to scourge the mind with the goads of reproach and of exacting demand?
The Excesses of Immoderate Zeal
When the goads of reproach and exacting demand burn unchecked, they drive souls into inconsolable sorrow and immoderate abstinence that weakens body and mind.
When some people's minds are fiercely inflamed by these goads, they often mourn inconsolably even over things they can in no way avoid. Stirred up by these goads, the mind often even presumes to begin things it is entirely unable to finish. From this comes that immoderate sadness of some people; from this also comes that indiscriminate abstinence which drains not only the body's strength but the mind's vigor as well.2 Because we've seen some people, when Simeon is raging, so swallowed up by irrational sadness that no one's consolation could relieve them even a little. We've known others who fell so hard through immoderate abstinence that afterward no abundance of delicacies, no care from cooks, could satisfy them.
Fighting Vessels of Iniquity
Simeon and Levi's warlike revenge kills the soul's disordered attachments but also destroys its own peace, prompting Jacob's warning against their counsel.
See how these warriors fight—I mean Simeon and Levi—and how they take their revenge. For what else is it when they seize their swords and kill Dinah's lovers than, by reproaching what can't be avoided, or by demanding what is impossible, to wear down not only the body's strength but even the mind's vigor, until the mind can't hold itself back from its excesses even for ordinary human shame?3 That's why it's rightly said of them through Jacob: Simeon and Levi are brothers, fighting vessels of iniquity; let my soul not enter their counsel, and let my glory not be in their company. What kind of warriors they are—who, while they want to seem to have acted bravely, kill the companions of their own peace as cruelly as violently! Fighting vessels of iniquity—but let my soul not enter their counsel. What thoughtless men—who, while they presume here to do what they can't accomplish, even lose what they could have done!
Refusing Their Counsel and Glory
The chapter closes by rejecting both the counsel and the glory of violent zeal, since it acts in fury and self-will rather than in humble strength.
So may my soul not enter their counsel, and may my glory not be in their company. It is no good boasting to walk among great things and wonders beyond yourself, so that you can glory as if in your own strength. This kind of boasting, I say, is not good. So may my glory not be in their company. For, he says, in their fury they killed a man, and of their own will they undermined a wall.4
Read the original Latin
Sed considerandum est iterum quod saepe in eo quod fortiter agunt, modum justi libraminis excedunt, quod facile convincimus ex hoc eorum opere quod inter manus habemus. Arreptis enim gladiis, confoederatos sibi societatis pacto violenter occidunt, et pro unius pudicitia violata, tot virorum tam subitam stragem fecerunt. Gladius Simeonis exprobratio, gladius Levi est exactio. Solet enim Simeon corruptae menti exprobrare vehementer malum quod fecit, Levi vero solet vehementer exigere bonum quod fieri oportuit. Quid igitur aliud est eos his gladiis pugnare, quam exprobrationis et exactionis stimulis mentem flagellare? His stimulis quorumdam mens vehementer accensa, saepe inconsolabiliter plangit ea etiam quae nullo modo potest evitare. His stimulis exagitata ea etiam saepe inchoare praesumit, quae nullatenus valet consummare. Hinc illa quorumdam immoderata tristitia; hinc illa etiam indiscreta abstinentia, quae non solum vires corporis, verum etiam evacuant virtutem mentis.
Quosdam etenim, saeviente Simeone, vidimus tam irrationabili tristitia absorberi, ut nullius possent aliquatenus consolatione relevari. Alios cognovimus per immoderatam abstinentiam tam graviter corruisse, ut nulla postmodum deliciarum copia, nulla coquorum diligentia posset eis satisfacere. Ecce bellatores isti (Simeon loquor et Levi) quomodo pugnant, qualiter se vindicant. Quid est enim aliud eos, arreptis gladiis, Dinae amatores interficere, quam exprobratione inevitabilium vel exactione impossibilium eo usque non solum vires corporis, verum etiam vigorem mentis attenuare, ut pro humana saltem verecundia non possit se mens a suis excessibus temperare? Unde eis recte per Jacob dicitur: Simeon, et Levi fratres vasa iniquitatis bellantia, in consilium eorum non veniat anima mea, et in coetu eorum non sit gloria mea. O quales bellatores, qui dum fortiter egisse videri volunt, pacis suae socios tam crudeliter quam violenter occidunt! Vasa iniquitatis bellantia, sed in consilium eorum non veniat anima mea. O viros inconsultos, qui dum hic praesumunt quod efficere non possunt, illud etiam amittunt quod efficere potuerunt!
In consilium ergo eorum non veniat anima mea, et in coetu eorum non sit gloria mea. Non est bona gloriatio ambulare in magnis, et in mirabilibus super se, quo possit quasi de sua gloriari virtute. Non est, inquam, hujusmodi bona gloriatio. In coetu ergo eorum non sit gloria mea: Quia, inquit, in furore suo occiderunt virum, et in voluntate sua suffoderunt murum.
Notes
- 1 ↩exactio carries the force of demanding or enforcing what is due (the good that ought to be done), parallel to exprobratio as harsh reproach for evil already done.
- 2 ↩virtutem mentis rendered as 'the mind's vigor' (capacity/force), not moral virtue, to match the parallel with vires corporis and the following section's vigorem mentis.
- 3 ↩Dinae amatores continues the Gen 34 allegory: Shechem and his people as Dinah's 'lovers'; spiritually, the attachments and occasions the corrupted mind is violently scourged over.
- 4 ↩in voluntate sua is rendered 'of their own will' to keep self-will force without KJV 'selfwill'; next chapter allegorizes virum as vigor of mind and murum as bodily discipline, so man/wall are kept literal.
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