The Judgment of the Wicked and the Cup of Wrath

The relatives of the archers should not say 'Repent like a sparrow' in a mocking way, which we shall reject, wanting to show those who trust in God with a whole heart.

Since the archers prepared to sophistize are sons of darkness and of night, those having a straight heart set themselves to shoot in the clear night. Ps 10:3b The Lord is righteous; what will he do? Will he lay snares upon the sinners and divide to them a cup of punishment, so that while drinking them they become weak from the impulse to shoot? Ps 10:4-7 Concerning the Father, and also Him, the Savior: before the incarnation, His holy temple was to be rejected, having the holy and heavenly thought concerning Him. Ps 10:4 In His holy temple and He has the throne in heaven, reigning divinely and supernaturally. We also noted that previously the throne was taken instead of the kingdom.

But the watchful ones and the powers of God, called His eyes, become toward the sufferer, guarding him harmless from those appointed around him. The eyelids of the eyes of God examine the actions and the thoughts of men. From this, the philanthropy of the Judge is shown. For if He examined with eyes and not with eyelids, the judgment would be unendurable to men. But His examining with His own eyelids does not mean all the sins of those judged are observed, nor do these exist in magnitude.

It is also possible to say: His eyes are upon the one being benefited, if a sufferer exists, but the eyelids are upon the sons; many men's sons, if the benefits are abundantly and boldly accomplished, but the punishments hide much concerning God. And these things he will say by thought; they show no perceptible eyelid or anything of that kind, therefore these things must be thought of in a God-befitting way. Christ is not to be revealed on a step; all must be brought to each one what he has done through the body, whether good or evil. Having said this, under the Lord's examination being done of the righteous and the ungodly, he brings it as if he hates his own soul, the one doing evil without hating it as injustice, making it subject to punishment because of sinning; he acts contrary to the one acting justly.

He who loves his soul and his neighbor as himself strives toward virtue. The Lord does not fight, but examines the righteous and the impious by the fact that the impious do not stand up in judgment. For the former signifies those who are entirely atheistic, while the latter signifies those who despise God because of sinning. For the Scriptures declare this, especially that which says, 'The righteous shall be like the impious' in Genesis.

He will lay snares upon sinners, that is, he will punish them by making snares and by keeping those being hunted within them, unless they are delivered up by him to the desires of their own hearts; this is also declared by the sufferings of dishonor and an unproven mind. And therefore, if not for this, it is said 'He will lay snares' rather than 'He will rain snares'; for those having been ensnared by themselves are being rained upon with snares. This is also declared from 'The Lord will lead those turning into straits with those working iniquity.'

You will apply to the latter the recompenses, as it is written in Proverbs: 'God sends toward crooked, crooked ways.' Regarding the former recompense, you will punish by sending crooked ways to those who have become crooked through wickedness; but regarding the latter, the recompenses are those being delivered up, which are shown through the sufferings of dishonor and those being reproached. 'Fire and sulfur and a spirit of tempest are the portion of their cup.'

The painful recompenses are often declared in the Scripture by the name of the cup, as in Isaiah: 'Arise, arise, Jerusalem, pouring out the cup of downfall, the bowl of your fury,' and the following; but also in Jeremiah the same is presented from the sound of that voice: 'Take the cup of the wrath of my uncontrolled anger from my hand, and you shall make all the nations drink it, whom I have sent against you.' Does not this also signify the punishment in the things set forth by the portion of the cup divided to them, especially what the fullness of this cup is: 'Fire and sulfur and a spirit of tempest'? The things written in Genesis are not symbols, if they are the punishments having come upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord; toward this fire and sulfur and spirit of tempest is the watering of the cup. The fire declares the through...