The Nature of the Wicked Death

Man is such that he is not, according to the body, 'in image and likeness' of God. But if you reflect upon what the wings of God are, you will see that man also possesses such wings, intellectual ones, suspending him. Again, the eyes: since they take in all things according to history, the man having two eyes is not 'in image and likeness' of the One having seven, so that those things being lifted up from the sensible, the things concerning man being lifted up from the sensible, they preserve the likeness toward God.

And the face of the Lord is upon those doing evil (Ps 70:1). This he says because those doing evil are not righteous. And not being righteous, they are not feared by God, nor are they heard. However, they do not remain invisible to him. But when they fall into certain calamities and come to a realization that because of the evil things being done and thought they have come to these, they receive a vision of him. For Moses also pursued Pharaoh and his whole army with great speed, and he said he heard of God saying: 'I shall be glorified in Pharaoh and in all his army, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the Lord'; for how did they know? Having become submerged, no longer being able to escape, they received a vision of God. And it is set forth in the Psalms: 'Let them be ashamed and be confounded and perish, and let them know that your name, O Lord' (Ps 76:10). After the perishing, after the being ashamed, they knew God, and this is to be the appearing of him to be and to have a face upon those doing evil.

But how else does he say: 'And you turned your face, and I became troubled' (Ps 31:7)? Elsewhere it is said: the voice belongs to the Savior. Listen then: to turn the face he does not say is from those doing evil, but from those having it appearing to them. And having been slightly troubled, they thought it was happening outside the face; therefore also they were troubled. I perceived by sense that something unpleasant was above them. And the turning of the face happened thus, toward stirring up those who previously saw him and did not have him turned away, so that they might encounter him. But for those doing evil, neither is this the cause, but so that they may perceive that by the providence of God they were judged, that by the providence of God they are in calamities. And this also happens to...

The end is useful; 17 to destroy their memory from the earth. It is not merely 'their memory', but 'from the earth', so that they are no longer counted as belonging to the earth, no longer thinking of earthly things. Just as we say that he drove this man out of the country where many prostitutions are; for it is no curse that one should remove him from there, having placed him among the opposites. 18 The righteous cried out, and the Lord heard them. And rightly so, since he has ears toward them; having cried out, they happened to find him listening. Pay attention, for two things are said, one praiseworthy and one punishing; 124 it is praiseworthy that the eyes of the Lord and the ears are toward the righteous, but the face of the Lord is punishing 'to destroy the memory from the earth'; for even if the end is not a decrease, but happens through evil, it is like through cauteries and surgeries and very sharp draughts.

Regarding the other thing, the preceding says: since the ears of God are toward the prayer of the righteous and his eyes watch over them, having cried out they did not fail; for he 'heard' 'them'. And toward the other: 'the face of the Lord toward those doing evil', in the following he says: 'but the death of sinners is evil'. Not every death is evil, but the death of the sinners. And the word is not now about the common man; for that is of a living being, not of one doing, not of a sinner, not of a righteous man. Even if you call him common, when he dies as a sinner, he has an evil death—for he will receive punishment—and if the other, that which is truly appropriate to the sinner, 'sin', he says, 'having been completed, brings forth death'. But sin is completed not from outside those doing it, but in the men doing it. Therefore the death following them is evil.

And regarding the former meaning, we say the death is evil as a maker of evil, as a corruptor. But here we say evil according to the second attribution, that it is outside of goodness. The grammarians therefore read evil as 'evil as a corruptor'. 'And all the evil diseases of Egypt I will not let touch you', the grievous plagues which the Egyptians suffered according to history. And when he says: 'abstain from every form of evil', we do not say...