Thomas Aquinas, on Job 31:11

“For this is a heinous crime, and a most grievous iniquity.”

“He shows why he avoided this sin saying, "This is a sinful thing," because it is against the law of God which bound a man and a woman in matrimony. (cf. Matt. 19:6) "And," if one considers human justice, it is, "the greatest evil," because the greater the good taken away, the greater the injustice. If someone should steal a cow, it will be a greater injustice than if he should steal a sheep, and so it is punished by a greater penalty, as Exodus says. The man who commits adultery takes away the greatest thing from a man, his wife, who is one flesh with him (Gen. 2:24). He also takes away the certainty of offspring and consequently, the whole succession of his patrimony, which because of adultery, sometimes accrues to strangers.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.

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