The Sword of Divine Judgment

They are called bodily. This is shown from many scriptures, one of which is: 'Near is their mouth, but far from their kidneys.' This is said concerning wicked men, who indeed confess that God exists by word, but do not have Him in their intellect. 'My help is just from God, who saves those upright in heart.' This teaches by power whether He saves those upright in heart. And I demand just help from Him, by which I shall be saved; that I may have an upright heart, free from all deceit; therefore I also pray to be judged according to my goodness (Ps 7:12–14).

Having brought a prayer so that the wickedness of sinners might be completed and the Lord might be exalted over the edges of the enemies, rising in wrath through love toward neighbors, He does not want anyone to suffer the completion of wickedness by chance, but to know it by choice, knowing God to be a judge. If God is a just judge, it is to be feared to sin; for we approach the Word as a judge seeing the hidden and not being ignorant of anything being done. And just as a judge, so also He is just, bringing the judgment according to merit to those judged under Him. And a judge who is just and has power can without delay punish those stumbling.

If no one receives justice from the ungodly and sinning ones, through the long-suffering of the judge's goodness, there is an overcoming of the retribution; for if a just and powerful judge were only that, all would have been lost immediately, because the intellect of men is flowing toward sin, whereas He has power toward the things said and toward long-suffering. For He is good and does not bring wrath every single day, even though ungodliness and sins are happening constantly. But let us long-suffer not that we should persist in evil, but that we may have time and place for repentance; for He desires the repentance of the sinner so that he may live, rather than accepting death by persisting.

Regarding sinning, what is called being ignorant of what is the good of God for your repentance. However, even if he does not bring wrath on each day through exceeding goodness and patience, for those remaining in wickedness, wrath will be brought upon them in a day of wrath, that is, in a day of judgment. For if you do not turn back, he says, enjoying remaining in sin, he will make his sword shine (instead of being blunt).

And with it also his bow he will make ready, preparing in it instruments of death, having worked out the arrows of the punishments against those being burned from the fire of the sufferings. Often of the divine disciplines, the punishment is found being made manifest by the name of the sword. For that which is in Amos the prophet, 'All the sinners of the people shall be finished with the sword' (Amos 9:7), does not signify a physical knife; for not from everyone are all sinners slain by a hand-slaughter understood. It is not necessary that all the sinners be presented to be finished by punishment, being handed over to perish in Gehenna in soul and body.

The same is made manifest also in the prophet Zephaniah, saying of God: 'And you also, Ethiopians, are wounded by my sword' (Zephaniah 3:8), by which the sword of God is made clear, all the Ethiopian being called out through darkness and wickedness. Most clearly in Exodus, instead of a most bitter punishment, the sword was received; where the scribes of the sons of Israel, those over the works of the tyrant, having been appointed by him, having fallen under most bitter threat and tribulation, meeting Moses and Aaron, were saying, inciting: 'See, God has seen you and will judge; for you have made our stench loathsome before Pharaoh, to give the sword into his hands to kill us.' For they did not say they feared the iron knife, but the bitterness of the ruler, they said this. It is also presented from these words that the patience of God was not used cuttingly against those not repenting in...

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