The Twelve Thrones and the Perishing of the Ungodly

Prayer, but God is the one who gave the law. And Paul says: 'The Scripture foretells what is to come' (Rom 5:2), instead of 'the one who gave the Scripture.' He who explains and reproves will be loved. I said: I will confess my lawlessness to the Lord, and you have forgiven the impiety of my heart.

A lion hungry and a wolf thirsty, who tyrannizes being a poor man of a meager nation: If those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are blessed (Matt 5:6), those who hunger and thirst for injustice are lions and wolves. A king in need is a great slanderer: The approaches of the evil king are evils and false doctrines; for those ruled by him approach these things to him.

A man who guarantees a murderer will be a fugitive and not in safety: He who guarantees Satan guarantees injustice, promising to him that he will render the fruits of injustice. And concerning this the Gospel also says as one defiled through murder and sedition was cast into prison (Acts 25:11). A lawless nation shall by no means obey: The lawless nation is the order of the demons, to which the educated son does not obey.

He who works his own land will be filled with bread: He who cleanses himself will be filled with knowledge, but the unclean will be filled with ignorance. He who is ashamed of the faces of the unrighteous is not good: If the virtues are the faces of the righteous, he is not good who is not ashamed of the virtues; and if evils are the faces of sinners, he is good who is not ashamed of the evils. An insolent man hastens to be rich: Therefore the merciful in the age to come, having been shown mercy by God and having become angels, shall rule over the ungodly. Such is the status and...

He promised his disciples that the Lord would give them to sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. A throne is that in which the mind sits, a spiritual knowledge, gathering together those who have wandered from godliness. And to judge there means to teach, as 'Open your mouth with the word of God and judge all things healthily' (Ps 89:8), instead of 'Teach.' It is also necessary to know this: that the merciful one, having grasped the staff, himself will not become a staff, but will rather make the staff merciful.

And in the destruction of those, the righteous will be multiplied: If the ungodly perish in being ungodly, they will become righteous; for destruction now means the removal of ungodliness. Thus also Matthew, the tax collector (Matt 9:9), having been lost, the Lord granted him righteousness. For when it is burning, there is no healing (Matt 13:12): He did not say that once the flame has ceased there is no healing, but that while it is burning there is no healing, as one still having clearly wood, hay, or straw (Matt 13:12); if even for those being burned, health is found to approach after the ember.

And when ungodly rulers prevail, men groan: All those who are under the rulers and the authorities and the cosmic rulers of this darkness (Eph 6:12), all these groan. He who pastures prostitutes, destroys wealth: He who nurtures wickedness destroys wealth.

—Otherwise. A shepherd is a good mind having acquired passionless thoughts; and a shepherd is an evil mind having acquired passionate thoughts. If this is so, then surely a passionate thought is a goat, and a passionless thought is a sheep; therefore also the Lord stands the goats on the left and the sheep on the right (Matt 25:32-33); and he calls them both goats and sheep...