as you said yourself, how that the angels came to stand before the Lord, and the devil came with them. And we have it recorded by Moses in the beginning of Genesis, that the serpentbeguiledEve, and was cursed. And we know that in Egypt there were magicians who emulated2256
2256 Maranus suggests the insertion of ἐποίησαν or ἐπείρασαν before ἐξισοῦσθαι.
the mighty power displayed by God through the faithfulservant Moses. And you are aware that David said, ‘The gods of the nations are demons.’ ”2257
—whom neither the driving away of his cattle nor those riches of his in sheep, nor the sweeping away of his children in one swoop of ruin, nor, finally, the agony of his own body in (one universal) wound, estranged from the patience and the faith which he had plighted to the Lord; whom the devil smote with all his might in vain. For by all his pains he was not drawn away from his reverence for God; but he has been set up as an example and testimony to us, for the thorough accomplishment of patience as well in spirit as in flesh, as well in mind as in body; in order that we succumb neither to damages of our worldly goods, nor to losses of those who are dearest, nor even to bodily afflictions. What a bier9171
9171 “Feretrum”—for carrying trophies in a triumph, the bodies of the dead, and their effigies, etc.
for the devil did God erect in the person of that hero! What a banner did He rear over the enemy of His glory, when, at every bitter message, that man uttered nothing out of his mouth but thanks to God, while he denounced his wife, now quite wearied with ills, and urging him to resort to crooked remedies! How did God smile,9172
