An Answer from the Book of Proverbs

If you want me to keep silent, stop accusing me. Lay down your sword, and I will throw away my shield. To one thing only I cannot agree: to spare the heretics and not to defend my own orthodoxy. If that is the cause of the quarrel between us, I can submit to death, but not to silence. It would have been right to go through the whole of the Scriptures for answers to your ravings, and, like David playing his harp, to take the words of God to calm your raging breast. But I will be content with a few sayings from a single book. I will set Wisdom against folly, for I hope that, even if you despise the words of men, you will not think lightly of the word of God. Listen, then, to what Solomon the wise says about you and about all who are given to slander and insult: [a]

“Foolish men, while they desire to do injury, become ungodly and hate wisdom. Do not plot evil against your friend. Do not be angry with a man without a cause. The ungodly exalt insult. Put away from you the evil mouth; keep far from you the wicked lips, the eyes of the one who speaks evil, the tongue of the unjust, the hands that shed the blood of the righteous, the heart that plots evil thoughts, and the feet that hurry to do evil. “He who rests on falsehood feeds the winds and chases the flying birds. For he has left the paths of his own vineyard and has sent the wheels of his own farming astray. He walks through dry and desert places, and with his hands he gathers barrenness. “The mouth of the perverse is near to ruin, and he who utters evil words is the chief of fools. Every simple man is a blessed soul, but a violent man is without honor. By the fault of his lips the sinner falls into a snare. All the ways of a fool are right in his own eyes. The fool shows his anger that very day. Lying lips are hateful to the Lord. He who guards his lips guards his own soul, but he who is rash with his lips will be a terror to himself. The evil man in his violence does evil things, and the fool spreads out his folly. Look for wisdom among the wicked, and you will not find it. [b]

“The rash man will eat the fruit of his own ways. The wise man, by taking care, keeps away from evil, but the fool is confident and joins himself to it. A patient man is strong in his wisdom; the small-minded man is very unwise. He who oppresses the poor insults his Maker. The tongue of the wise knows good things, but the mouth of fools speaks evil. A quarrelsome man prefers strife, and everyone who lifts up his heart is unclean before God. Even if hand joins with hand to do wrong, they will not go unpunished. “He who loves life must be sparing with his mouth. Insolence goes before a crushing, and evil thoughts before a fall. He who shuts his eyes speaks perverse things and stirs up every evil with his lips. The lips of a fool lead him into evil, and his reckless speech calls down death. The man of evil counsel will suffer great loss. Better a poor man who is righteous than a rich man who tells lies. It is an honor for a man to turn away from evil words, but the fool binds himself with them. [d]

“Do not love slander, or you will be rooted out. The bread of lies is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be filled with gravel. He who gains treasures with a lying tongue chases emptiness and will come into the snares of death. Say nothing in the ear of a fool, or the wise may mock your words. The club and the sword and the arrow are harmful things; so is the man who bears false witness against his friend. As the birds and the sparrows fly away, so the curse will be empty and will not reach him. Do not answer an unwise man according to his lack of wisdom, or you will become like him; but answer a fool according to his folly, or he will seem wise in his own eyes. He who lies in wait for his friends says, when he is found out, ‘I did it in fun.’ [e] “A bundle of sticks for the coals, and wood for the fire, and a man of evil words for the uproar of strife. If your enemy asks anything of you, sparingly but with a loud voice, do not give in to him, for there are seven degrees of wickedness in his heart. The stone is heavy, and sand is hard to carry, but a fool’s anger is heavier than either. Indignation is cruel, anger is sharp, and envy is impatient. The ungodly man speaks against the poor, and he who trusts in the boldness of his heart is utterly foolish. The unwise man lets out all his anger, but the wise man deals it out a little at a time. An evil son: his teeth are swords and his back teeth are like harrows, to devour the weak from the earth and the poor from among men.” [f]

These are the lessons I was trained in, and so I was unwilling to return bite for bite and attack you in retaliation. I thought it better to cast out the madness of a raving man, and to pour the antidote of a single book into his poisoned breast. But I fear I will have no success, and that I will be forced to sing David’s song and take his words as my only comfort: “The wicked are estranged from the womb; they go astray even from the belly. They have spoken lies. Their madness is like the madness of the serpent, like the deaf adder that stops her ears, that will not hear the voice of the charmers or of the magician skillfully casting spells. God will break their teeth in their mouth; the Lord will break the great teeth of the lions. They will come to nothing, like water that runs away. He bends his bow until they are brought low. Like wax that melts, they will be carried away; fire has fallen on them, and they have not seen the sun.” [g] And again: “The righteous will rejoice when he sees vengeance on the ungodly; he will wash his hands in the blood of the sinner. And people will say, ‘Truly there is a reward for the righteous; truly there is a God who judges those on the earth.’” [h]