Ambrose of Milan — Commentary on Scripture

Proverbs 1:7

It is also the beginning of good discipline, as it is written: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7); for those who fear the Lord turn away from error and direct their ways to the path of virtue. For unless someone fears God, they cannot renounce sin.

The Six Days of Creation

Proverbs 3:19

Paul declares that it was said of the Son: “You, Lord, in the beginning laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.” Whether therefore the Son made the heavens, as also the apostle would have it understood, while he himself certainly did not alone spread out the heavens without the Father; or as it stands in the book of Proverbs, “the Lord in wisdom has founded the earth, in understanding he has prepared the heavens,” it is proved that neither the Father made the heavens alone without the Son, nor yet the Son without the Father.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.2.29

Proverbs 4:1-2

Indeed, many have lamented the weakness of human fragility, but among them, Job and David were particularly notable. The former, superior, direct, intense, and seemingly provoked by severe pains with a higher tragic quality; the latter, gentle, calm, and meek, with a milder emotion; so that, truly, we would imitate the heart of a deer that he set as an example for us to imitate. And do not be dismayed if I seem to preach to you in the likeness of a wild beast, when you read the statement to the apostles: Be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16). However, even though such similarities are drawn with pious examples, and the nature of deer is innocent and gentle; I think that deer is proposed here as an imitation of the Prophet, about whom Solomon, the supporter of his father's mind, said in Proverbs: 'A deer of friendship, and a foal of thanks will converse with you' (Prov. 5:19).

Interrogation of Job and David

Proverbs 4:23

Let us then guard our hearts, let us guard our mouths. Both have been written about. In this place we are bidden to take heed to our mouth; in another place you are told, “Keep your heart with all diligence.” If David took heed, will you not take heed? If Isaiah had unclean lips—who said, “Woe is me, for I am undone, for I am a man, and have unclean lips”—if a prophet of the Lord had unclean lips, how shall we have them clean?…Your possession is your mind, your gold your heart, your silver your speech: “The words of the Lord are pure words, as silver tried in the fire.” A good mind is also a good possession. And, further, a pure inner life is a valuable possession. Hedge in, then, this possession of yours, enclose it with thought, guard it with thorns, that is, with pious care, lest the fierce passions of the flesh should rush upon it and lead it captive, lest strong emotions should assault it, and, overstepping their bounds, carry off its vintage. Guard your inner self.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.3.10-11

Proverbs 5:8

Your flight is a good one if your heart does not act out the counsels of sinners and their designs. Your flight is a good one if your eye flees the sight of cups and drinking vessels, so that it may not become envious as it lingers over the wine. Your flight is good if your eye turns away from the woman stranger, so that your tongue may keep the truth. Your flight is a good one if you do not answer the fool according to his folly. Your flight is good if you direct your footsteps away from the countenance of fools. Indeed, one swiftly goes astray with bad guides; but if you wish your flight to be a good one, remove your ways far from their words.

FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 9:56

Proverbs 5:15-17

And I hope, O man, that you imitate the example of this kind, so that you yourself may bear fruit of joy and delight! The sweetness of your grace is within yourself, it sprouts from you, it remains in you, it is within you, that is, the joy of your conscience is to be sought within yourself. Therefore, it says: Drink water from your own vessels, and from the fountains of your own wells (Prov., V, 15).

The Six Days of Creation

Proverbs 6:6

However, there is also in the nature of quadrupeds a prophetic speech that exhorts us to imitate, by which example we avoid laziness and do not turn away from the study of virtue due to the smallness or weakness of the body, nor are we drawn back from the magnitude of any purpose. For even the ant is small, yet it dares with its own strength to undertake greater things; nor is it compelled to work by servitude, but it prepares future supplies of food for itself by its own foresight. The Scripture urges you to imitate the industry of the ant, saying: Consider the ant, O sluggard, and imitate its ways, and be wiser than it (Proverbs, 6:6). For the ant possesses no property, and does not have someone to force it or act as its master. Yet it prepares food by storing the harvest of your labors for itself; and while you often lack, it does not. It has no closed granaries, no impenetrable protections, no inviolable storehouses. The guard watches but dares not prevent thefts: the owner sees his losses and does not seek retribution. The prey is carried through the fields in a black column, th…

However, there is also in the nature of quadrupeds a prophetic speech that exhorts us to imitate, by which example we avoid laziness and do not turn away from the study of virtue due to the smallness or weakness of the body, nor are we drawn back from the magnitude of any purpose. For even the ant is small, yet it dares with its own strength to undertake greater things; nor is it compelled to work by servitude, but it prepares future supplies of food for itself by its own foresight. The Scripture urges you to imitate the industry of the ant, saying: Consider the ant, O sluggard, and imitate its ways, and be wiser than it (Proverbs, 6:6). For the ant possesses no property, and does not have someone to force it or act as its master. Yet it prepares food by storing the harvest of your labors for itself; and while you often lack, it does not. It has no closed granaries, no impenetrable protections, no inviolable storehouses. The guard watches but dares not prevent thefts: the owner sees his losses and does not seek retribution. The prey is carried through the fields in a black column, the roads sizzle with the crowd of wayfarers, and large quantities of grain that cannot be contained by a wide mouth are pushed with their shoulders. The master of the harvest observes these things and is ashamed to deny the profits of honest industry.

The Six Days of Creation

Proverbs 7:6-23

With a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of young men to flutter, restless at home, wandering in the streets, prodigal with kisses, cheap in modesty, rich in attire, painted cheeks. For indeed, since it cannot possess true beauty of nature, it entices with the appearance of affected beauty through false dyes, not truth. Adorned with a company of vices and surrounded by a chorus of wickedness, the leader of crimes attacks the wall of the human mind with such contrivances of words: 'Peace offering is to me; today I fulfill my vows.' For this reason, I have advanced to meet you, desiring to find your face. I have woven my bed with fine linen and spread carpets from Egypt. I have spread my bed with saffron, and my house with cinnamon. Come, let us enjoy friends…

With a provocative movement of a prostitute, with a disrupted gait through delights, with wandering eyes, and with playful darting of her eyelids, she captures the precious souls of young men (for the eye of a prostitute is a snare of a sinner), and with doubtful perception, she accosts anyone passing by in the corner of her house, with charming words, causing the hearts of young men to flutter, restless at home, wandering in the streets, prodigal with kisses, cheap in modesty, rich in attire, painted cheeks. For indeed, since it cannot possess true beauty of nature, it entices with the appearance of affected beauty through false dyes, not truth. Adorned with a company of vices and surrounded by a chorus of wickedness, the leader of crimes attacks the wall of the human mind with such contrivances of words: 'Peace offering is to me; today I fulfill my vows.' For this reason, I have advanced to meet you, desiring to find your face. I have woven my bed with fine linen and spread carpets from Egypt. I have spread my bed with saffron, and my house with cinnamon. Come, let us enjoy friendship until dawn; come, and let us wrestle with desire. For through the mouth of Solomon we see this form of harlot expressed. For what is more similar to harlotry than secular pleasure, which enters through the window of its house, tempting the eyes with its first enticements; and it quickly penetrates if you, looking out into the street, namely the public ways of those passing by, do not direct the gaze of your mind to the internal mysteries of the law. She certainly is the one who, like a kind of bed woven with stronger ties, has entangled us in the bonds of a community, so that whoever reclines on it is bound; and she covers the surface of her body with the veil of shameful deceit, to seduce the minds of young men in the absence of her husband, that is, by disregarding the law. For the law is absent for those who commit sins, for if it were present, they would not commit them; and therefore it says: For my husband is not at home: he has taken the longest journey, with a bundle of money received in his hand. What shall I say this is, except perhaps because the rich think there is nothing that does not yield to their money, and they want the law to be for sale in their favor? Pleasure spreads its own scents, because it does not have the scent of Christ, it displays treasures, promises kingdoms, guarantees continuous loves, offers unknown sexual encounters, disciplines without a tutor, conversations without a monitor, a life without worries, soft sleep, insatiable desire. Seducing him, she said, with many flattering words, and binding him with the snares of her lips, she led him home. But he, following her, is caught in a trap.... There, there was a commotion of feasting, the clamor of those singing, the violence of those arguing, the harmony of those dining, the noise of those dancing, the laughter of those laughing, the applause of those reveling, everything confused, nothing in the order of nature.

On Cain and Abel

Proverbs 8:22

Hereby we are brought to understand that the prophecy of the incarnation, “The Lord created me the beginning of his ways for his works,” means that the Lord Jesus was created of the Virgin for the redeeming of the Father’s works. Truly, we cannot doubt that this is spoken of the mystery of the incarnation, forasmuch as the Lord took upon him our flesh, in order to save the works of his hands from the slavery of corruption, so he might, by the sufferings of his own body, overthrow him who had the power of death. For Christ’s flesh is for the sake of things created, but his Godhead existed before them, seeing that he is before all things, while all things exist together in him. His Godhead, then, is not by reason of creation, but creation exists because of the Godhead.

Exposition of the Christian Faith 3.7.46-47

Proverbs 8:27-28

Learn also that the Father was with him, and he with the Father, when all things were being made. Wisdom says, “When he was preparing the heavens I was with him, when he was making the fountains of waters.” And in the Old Testament the Father … showed that the Son was to be worshiped with himself as the maker of all things. As, then, those things are said to have been created in the Son, of which the Son is received as the Creator, so too when God is said to be worshiped in truth by the proper meaning of the word itself often expressed after the same manner it ought to be understood, that the Son too is worshiped. So in like manner is the Spirit also worshiped because God is worshiped in Spirit. Therefore the Father is worshiped both with the Son and with the Spirit, because the Trinity is worshiped.

On the Holy Spirit 3.11.85

Proverbs 8:30-31

We have that general seemliness; for God made the beauty of this world. We have it also in its parts; for when God made the light, and marked off the day from the night, when he made heaven, and separated land and seas, when he set the sun and moon and stars to shine upon the earth, he approved of them all one by one. Therefore this comeliness, which shone forth in each single part of the world, was resplendent in the whole, as the book of Wisdom shows, saying, “I existed, in whom he rejoiced when he was glad at the completion of the world.” Likewise also in the building up of the human body each single member is pleasing, but the right adjustment of the members all together delights us far more. For thus they seem to be united and fitted into one harmonious whole.

On the Duties of the Clergy 1.46.233

Proverbs 9:2-5

But do you want to eat, do you want to drink? Come to the banquet of wisdom which invites everyone with great preaching, saying: Come and eat my bread, and drink the wine which I have mixed for you. Do songs delight and soothe the feasting? Listen to the exhorter, listen to the Church singing, not only in songs, but also in the Song of Songs: Eat, my friends, and drink, and be intoxicated, my dears. But this drunkenness makes the sober; this drunkenness is of grace, not of intoxication. It generates joy, not stumbling.

On Cain and Abel

Proverbs 9:2-5

And so he comes; whether you eat or drink, if you call upon Christ he is present, saying, “Come, eat of my bread and drink of my wine.” Even if you are asleep, he is knocking at the door. He comes, I say, frequently and reaches in through the window. Frequently (but not always and not to everyone) he comes to that soul which can say, “At night I had put off my garment.” For in this night of the world the garment of corporeal life is first to be taken off as the Lord divested himself in his flesh that for you he might triumph over the dominions and powers of this world.

Concerning Virginity 9:55

Proverbs 9:2-5

“Come and eat of my bread and drink the wine which I have mixed for you.” Plato judged that the discourse over this bowl should be copied into his books, he summoned forth souls to drink of it, but did not know how to fill them, for he provided not the drink of faith but that of unbelief.

FLIGHT FROM THE WORLD 8:50

Proverbs 10:15

But riches in themselves are not blameable. For the ransom of a man's life are his riches, for he who gives to the poor, redeems his soul. There is therefore scope for virtue even in these material riches. Ye are as it were pilots, in a great sea. If any man steers well his ship, he quickly passes over the sea, and reaches his haven, but he who cannot manage his property is sunk together with his burthen. Wherefore it is written, The rich man's strength is his strong city.

Letters 61-70

Proverbs 10:19

The virtue of silence, especially in church, is very great. Let no sentence of the divine lessons escape you. If you give ear, restrain your voice, utter no word with your lips which you would wish to bring back, but let your boldness to speak be sparing. For in truth in much speaking there is abundance of sin. To the murderer it was said, “You have sinned, be silent,” that he might not sin more; but to the virgin it must be said, “Be silent lest you sin.” For Mary, as we read, kept in heart all things that were said concerning her Son. So when any passage is read where Christ is announced as about to come or is shown to have come, do not make a noise by talking, but attend. Is anything more unbecoming that the divine words should be so drowned by talking, as not to be heard, believed or made known, that the sacraments should be indistinctly heard through the sound of voices, that prayer should be hindered when offered for the salvation of all?

Concerning Virginity 3.3.11

Proverbs 10:19

Learn what your door is: Place, O Lord, a guard at my mouth, and a door protector around my lips. And Paul asks to be prayed for: That a door may be opened to me, he says, to speak the mystery of Christ. But as he was chosen to preach the Gospel, he rightly desired that the door of the word be opened to him; for from his mouth salvation of the nations went forth, from his mouth came forth the life of the people. But we shut the door, lest fault enter, lest any slip of speech should go out. Fault enters if a slip goes out. Listen how fault enters. In much speaking, it says, you will not avoid sin. Much speaking went out, sin entered; because in much speaking, the word that goes out is not at all examined. It slips foolishly, though speaking excessively is a great sin in itself.

On Cain and Abel

Proverbs 11:1

Therefore let every man weigh his words, not with deceit and guile, for a false balance is abomination to the Lord. I do not mean that balance which weighs the wares of others, (though even in lesser matters deceit often costs dear,) but that balance of words is hateful to the Lord, which wears the mask of the weight of sober gravity, and yet practises the artifices of cunning. Great is God's anger, if a man deceive his neighbour by flattering promises, and by treacherous subtlety oppress his debtor, a craft which will not benefit himself. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the riches of the whole world, and yet defraud his own soul of the wages of eternal life?

Letters 1-10

Proverbs 13:8

A man's riches ought to avail to the ransom of his soul, not to its destruction. And a treasure is a ransom, if a man use it well; on the other hand it is a snare, if a man know not how to use it. What is a man's money to him but a provision for his journey? Much is a burthen, a little is useful. We are wayfarers in this life; many walk, but it is needful that we walk aright, for then is the Lord Jesus with us, as we read, When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee, and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned.

Letters 1-10

Proverbs 13:24

Then the provident guide of the soul has regard to this, that he may circumscribe her pleasures and cut off her desires, that she may not delight herself in them. That father's corrections are profitable, who spares not the rod, that he may render his son's soul obedient to salutary precepts. For he visits with a rod, as we read, I will visit their offences with the rod. And so he who smites the soul of the Israelites with a rod on the cheek, by this Divine punishment instructs her in the discipline of patience. But no man need despair who is chastised and corrected, for he who loveth his son chastiseth him. Let no man therefore despair of a remedy.

Letters 61-70