Toil And Travel

In multitudine viae tuae laborasti, et non dixisti: Quiescam: vitam manus tuae invenisti, propterea non rogasti me. LXX Multis itineribus tuis laborasti, et non dixisti, desinam: confortate fecisti haec: propterea non rogasti me. Qui ambulat in via una et regis, non laborat, de qua per Moysen praecipt Deus, Via regia ambulabis, et non declinabis ad dexteram neque ad sinistram. Una via est veritas, quae dicit in Evangelio: Ego sum via, veritas et vita: et multae mendaciorum viae, per quas nunc ambulasse arguitur Jersusalem quarum viarum Deus sciens differentiam, supra loquitur ad errantes: Non sicut viae meae, viae vestrae, quae dicunt Domino confitentes: Declinare fecisti vias nostras a viis tuis. Cognita igitur una via regia, videamus quae dextrae viae sint et sinistrae, per quas prohibemur incedere. Via regia temperata est, nec plus in se habens nec minus. Verbi gratia, via recta et regia, prudentia est. Declinamus ad dexteram, si plus sapimus quam oportet sapere, et pro prudentia calliditatem diligimus: quia [ Al. qua] serpens prudentior erat omnibus bestiis in paradiso: Et filii tenebrarum prudentiores sunt filiis lucis. Ad sinistramque divertimus, quando stulti sumus, et minus sapimus quam necesse est. De quibus dictum est: Dixit stultus in corde suo, non est Deus. Pietas quoque et vera religio, via regia est. Declinat ad dexteram, qui superstitiosus est, et meretur audire, Ne sis multum justus. Ad sinistram, qui negligit cultum Dei, et inter haedos hircosque numeratur. Liberalitas quoque et dispensatio virtus maxima est, a qua declinat ad dexteram, qui parcus est, et non solum aliis, sed ne sibi quidem tribuit quod necesse est. Ad sinistram, qui comedit substantiam suam cum meretricibus, et dicit cum Israel: Manducemus et bibamus; cras enim moriemur. Fortitudo etiam atque constantia via regia est, a qua declinat ad dexteram, qui temerarius et pertinax est: ad sinistram, qui formidolosus et pavidus. Unde vir sanctus per viam rectam gradi cupiens deprecatur: Deduc me, Domine, in via recta. Et in alio loco: Notam fac mihi, Domine, viam in qua ambulem; quoniam ad te levavi oculos meos. De istiusmodi via et alibi Scriptura commemorat: Quaerite viam bonum, et ambulate in ea, et invenietis purificationem animarum vestrarum. Jerusalem ergo propterea humiliata est usque ad inferos, quia in multis viis laboravit, neque dixit: Emendabo errorem poenitentia; sed e contrario, confortabor incoepto, nec curabo sententiam commonentis: Averte pedem tuum a via aspera, et guttur tuum a siti. Sanctus Hieronymus, Commentariorum In Isaiam Prophetam, Lib XVI, Cap LVII Source Migne PL 24.553b-554b

'In the multitude of your ways you toiled, and you did not say: 'I shall rest.' You found life in your hands, therefore you did not ask me.' The Septuagint reads: 'In many ways you toiled, and you did not say, 'I shall cease,' you were strengthed by these things, therefore you did not ask me.' 1 He who walks in the one royal way, he does not toil, concerning which God commanded through Moses: 'You shall walk in the royal way and you shall not decline to the right nor to the left.' 2 The one way is truth, which He speaks of in the Gospel: 'I am the way, the truth and the life.' 3 And the many ways of liars, through which Jerusalem had now walked, is convicted, concerning which ways, God who knows the difference, spoke to the errant: 'My ways are not as your ways,' 4 which confessing they say to the Lord, 'You made our ways decline from your ways.' 5 Therefore with the one royal way recognised, let us see what are the ways to the right and to the left on which we are prohibited to walk. The royal way is temperate, having in itself neither excess or lack. For example the way that is straight and regal is prudence. We decline to the right when we know more than it is needful to know, and we love cleverness over prudence, because the serpent was more clever than all the animals of the garden, and the sons of darkness are more prudent than the sons of light. 6 We wander to the left when we are foolish, knowing less than necessary, concerning which it has been said, 'The fool says in his heart that there is no God.' 7 Piety and true religion are also the royal way. He declines to the right who is excessively scrupulous and who deserves to hear: 'Do not be overly righteous.' 8 To the left he declines who neglects the worship of God and is reckoned among the kids and goats. Liberality and giving is also a great virtue, which if it declines to the right is parsimony, and then not only does a man not give to others what is needful but he neither does to himself. To the left he declines who squanders his wealth with whores, and he says with Israel: 'Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we shall die.' 9 Fortitude and constancy are also the royal way, from which he declines to the right who is reckless and obstinate, and to the left he who is fearful and timid. Whence the holy man, because he desires to walk on the right way, prays: 'Lead me, Lord, on the right way.' And in another place: 'Make known to me, Lord, the way in which I should walk, because to you I have lifted up my eyes.' 10 Which way the Scriptures mention elsewhere: 'Seek the good way and walk in it, and you shall find cleansing for your soul.' 11 Jersulaem, then, because of its fall, even to hell, because it toiled in many ways, did not say: 'I will amend my error in penitence,' but on the contrary, 'I shall be strengthened because I have begun, and I shall have no care for the word of warning:' 'Take your foot from the bitter way and your throat from thirst.' 12 Saint Jerome, Commentary On The Prophet Isaiah, Book 16, Chap 57 1 Isaiah 57.10 2 Deut 5.32 3 Jn 14.6 4 Isaiah 55.8 5 Ps 43.19 6 Gen 3.1, Lk 16.8 7 Ps 13.1 8 Eccle 7.17 9 Isaiah 22.13 10 Ps 138.24, Ps 142.8 11 Jerem 6.16 Sept 12 Jerem 2.25 Sept