And when the men rose up from thence, they turned their eyes towards Sodom: and Abraham walked with them, bringing them on the way.17 And the Lord said: Can I hide from Abraham what I am about to do:18 Seeing he shall become a great and mighty nation, and in him all the nations of the earth shall be blessed?19 For I know that he will command his children, and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord, and do judgment and justice: that for Abraham’s sake the Lord may bring to effect all the things he hath spoken unto him.20 And the Lord said: The cry of Sodom and Gomorrha is multiplied, and their sin is become exceedingly grievous.21 I will go down and see whether they have done according to the cry that is come to me: or whether it be not so, that I may know.22 And they turned themselves from thence, and went their way to Sodom: but Abraham as yet stood before the Lord.23 And drawing nigh he said: Wilt thou destroy the just with the wicked?24 If there be fifty just men in the city, shall they perish withal? and wilt thou not spare that place for the sake of the fifty just, if they be therein?25 Far be it from thee to do this thing, and to slay the just with the wicked, and for the just to be in like case as the wicked, this is not beseeming thee: thou who judgest all the earth, wilt not make this judgment.26 And the Lord said to him: If I find in Sodom fifty just within the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.27 And Abraham answered, and said: Seeing I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord, whereas I am dust and ashes.28 What if there be five less than fifty just persons? wilt thou for five and forty destroy the whole city? And he said: I will not destroy it, if I find five and forty.29 And again he said to him: But if forty be found there, what wilt thou do? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of forty.30 Lord, saith he, be not angry, I beseech thee, if I speak: What if thirty shall be found there? He answered: I will not do it, if I find thirty there.31 Seeing, saith he, I have once begun, I will speak to my Lord. What if twenty be found there? He said: I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.32 I beseech thee, saith he, be not angry, Lord, if I speak yet once more: What if ten should be found there? And he said: I will not destroy it for the sake of ten.33 And the Lord departed, after he had left speaking to Abraham: and Abraham returned to his place.
Let us be imitators also of those who in goat-skins and sheep-skins [Hebrews 11:37] went about proclaiming the coming of Christ; I mean Elijah, Elisha, and Ezekiel among the prophets, with those others to whom a like testimony is borne [in Scripture]. Abraham was specially honoured, and was called the friend of God; yet he, earnestly regarding the glory of God, humbly declared, "I am but dust and ashes." [Genesis 18:27] Moreover, it is thus written of Job, "Job was a righteous man, and blameless, truthful, God-fearing, and one that kept himself from all evil." [Job 1:1] But bringing an accusation against himself, he said, "No man is free from defilement, even if his life be but of one day." [Job 14:4-5] Moses was called faithful in all God's house; and through his instrumentality, God punished Egypt with plagues and tortures. Yet he, though thus greatly honoured, did not adopt lofty language, but said, when the divine oracle came to him out of the bush, "Who am I, that Thou sendest me? I am a man of a feeble voice and a slow tongue." [Exodus 4:10] And again he said, "I am but as the smoke of a pot."
For David himself. Bless the Lord, O my soul: and let all that is within me bless his holy name.2 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget all he hath done for thee.3 Who forgiveth all thy iniquities: who healeth all thy diseases.4 Who redeemeth thy life from destruction: who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion.8 The ford is compassionate and merciful: longsuffering and plenteous in mercy.9 He will not always be angry: nor will he threaten for ever.10 He hath not dealt with us according to our sins: nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.11 For according to the height of the heaven above the earth: he hath strengthened his mercy towards them that fear him.
God is not an expression, and he does not have his essence in voice or utterance. God is of himself what also he is believed to be. He is named by those who call on him, not what he is essentially (for the nature of him who alone is unspeakable), but he receives his names from what are believed to be his works in regard to our life. To take an instance ready at hand, when we speak of him as God, we so name him from his overlooking and surveying all things and seeing through the things that are hidden. But if his essence is prior to his works, and if we understand his works by our senses and express them in words as we are best able, why should we be afraid of calling things by words of later origin than themselves? For if we stop interpreting any of the attributes of God until we understand them, and if we understand them only by what his works teach us, and if his power precedes its exercise and depends on the will of God, while his will resides in the spontaneity of the divine nature, are we not clearly taught that the words that represent things are of later origin than the things themselves and that the words that are framed to express the operations of things are reflections of the things themselves? And that this is so, we are clearly taught by holy Scripture, by the mouth of great David, when, as by certain peculiar and appropriate names, derived from his contemplation of the works of God, he thus speaks of the divine nature: "The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, long-suffering, and of great goodness." Now what do these words tell us? Do they indicate his operations or his nature? No one will say that they indicate anything but his operations. At what time, then, after showing mercy and pity, did God acquire his name from the display of his works? Was it before a person's life began? But who was there to be the object of pity? Was it, then, after sin entered into the world? But sin entered after humankind. The exercise, therefore, of pity, and the name itself, came after humanity. What then? Will our adversary [Eunomius], wise as he is above the prophets, convict David of error in applying names to God derived from his opportunities of knowing him? Or, in contending with him, will he use against him the pretense in his stately passage as out of a tragedy, saying that "he glories in the most blessed life of God with names drawn from human imagination, whereas it gloried in itself alone, long before people were born to imagine them"? The psalmist's advocate will readily admit that the divine nature gloried in itself alone even before the existence of human imagination but will contend that the human mind can speak only so much in respect of God as its capacity, instructed by his works, will allow. "For," as says the Wisdom of Solomon, "by the greatness and beauty of the creatures proportionably the Maker of them is seen."
And Jesus seeing great multitudes about him, gave orders to pass over the water.19 And a certain scribe came and said to him: Master, I will follow thee whithersoever thou shalt go.20 And Jesus saith to him: The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air nests: but the son of man hath not where to lay his head.†21 And another of his disciples said to him: Lord, suffer me first to go and bury my father.22 But Jesus said to him: Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.
Otherwise; This Scribe being one of the doctors of the Law, asks if he shall follow Him, as though it were not contained in the Law that this is He whom it were gain to follow. Therefore He discovers the feeling of unbelief under the diffidence of his enquiry. For the taking up of the faith is not by question but by following.
The disciple does not ask whether he shall follow Him; for he already believed that he ought to follow, but prays to be suffered first to bury his father.
Also, because we are taught in the beginning of the Lord’s prayer, first to say, Our Father, which art in heaven; and since this disciple represents the believing people; he is here reminded that he has one only Father in heaven (Mat. 23:9.), and that between a believing son and an unbelieving Father the filial relation does not hold good. We are also admonished that the unbelieving dead are not to be mingled with the memories of the saints, and that they are also dead who live out of God; and the dead are buried by the dead, because by the faith of God it behoves the living to cleave to the living (God.)
About CSB. A personal translation of the New Testament, rendered directly from the public-domain Greek in a literary style — not a scholarly critical edition, and not for liturgical or doctrinal authority. It is one reader's work, offered for enjoyment; where it matters, weigh it against an established translation. (Placeholder text — final wording to come.)