In the last canto, Virgil and Dante were in the eighth circle of Hell which includes 10 bolgias (ditches, pouches, ravines, moats). They were at the 5th bolgia where Graft and Barratry are punished. The ditch is filled with boiling tar and the sinners must remain below the surface. Whenever they surface, demons use prongs to push them back under the pitch. The demons rushed over to Virgil and he spoke with their leader, Malacoda, who told them the bridge to the next bolgia had collapsed back when Jesus Christ was crucified, buried and resurrected during the Harrowing of Hell. But he would send a squad of demons to lead them to another crossing place. Although he speaks these words to their face, he signals the squad of demons that the travelers are fair game. What was the signal? A resounding fart, “he made a trumpet of his ass”. We left Virgil and Dante with the squad of demons.
I have seen horsemen moving camp before
And when they muster, and when an assault begins,
And beating a retreat when they retire;
I have seen coursers, too, O Aretines,
Over your lands, and raiders setting out,
And openings of jousts and tourneys – with signs
By bell and trumpet and drum, and signals set
On castles by native and foreign signalry:
But I never saw so strange a flageolet –
Send foot or horsemen forth, nor ship at sea
Guided by land or star! We journeyed now
With the ten demons, Ah, savage company –
But as the saying has it, one must go
With boozers in the tavern and saints in the church.
Dante continues here with the military imagery. In Canto XXI, he gave us the imagery of the Venetian Arsenal where ships were manufactured and repaired. Also in Canto 21 he had the demons under Malacoda who sent them on a reconnaissance mission to make sure no sinners are out of the pitch. He also tells them to take Virgil and Dante to a safe crossing. Then he signals them to leave with his flatulence and off they go. Canto 22, Dante, the poet, compares this vulgar signal with signals he’s seen in the military. Dante participated in the military history of Florence at the siege of Caprona in 1284 and was earlier with the cavalry at the battle of Campaldino where Guelf Florence defeated Ghibelline Arrezo (the Aretines). But he says he never heard or saw such a strange “flageolet” (flute, bugal) to signal.
Signals are made to alert people. There are warning signals, movement signals, beginning (start) and end (finish) signals, etc. Back in Dante’s day, they didn’t have communications like we have now in the military. They didn’t have cell phones, satellite, radios, etc. So it had to be a loud, or noticeable symbol, for people to hear/see and understand. We place trust in the signals we receive and move accordingly. When you watch a football game, the referee signals with a whistle when the players are allowed to begin the next play. They also use a whistle to signal the end of a play. What if the referee signals the players should begin the play but the players can’t hear the whistle? They may stand around looking at each other or walking around waiting to get started. But when they hear the whistle, they gather in their positions and the quarterback moves the ball for the play. Same with a tornado siren. When we hear it, we know a tornado has been spotted and we must get to safety. We rely on those signals.
“In the context of the bolgia that treats corrupt governance, the emphasis on the sign-systems necessary for effective communication in the military, and on the trust that we place in shared sign-systems in a healthy and functioning society, is a way of commenting on the break-down in governance and trust in the Italian cities.” – DigitalDante.columbia.edu
Dante concludes that he and Virgil didn’t have a lot of choice when it came to guides. Considering they are in Hell, it would be demons who could guide them, “one must go
with boozers in the tavern and saints in the church”.
Intent upon the pitch, I tried to know
All that I could of the nature of this pouch
And those who burn in it. Like dolphins who warn
Sailors to save their vessels, when they arch
Their backs above the water, so we could discern
From time to time a sinner show his back
To alleviate his pain, and then return
To hiding quicker than a lightning stroke.
And as at water’s edge or in a ditch
Frogs lie, concealing their feet and all their bulk
With snouts above the surface: at the approach
Of Barbariccia, sinners who lay just so,
Concealing themselves on every side, would twitch
And pull back under the boiling.
Dante, the poet, uses more earthy analogies by comparing the sinners to dolphins who arch out of the sea and frogs in a pond. It was a common perception at the time that dolphins approached ships when they sensed that a storm at sea was brewing. Frogs, at the edge of the water, will lay submerged with just their nose above water. When someone approaches they quickly draw back into the water. So the sinners try to get some relief from the bubbling not tar along the edge of the ditch. But as the squad of demons follow the edge, the sinners try to back up and re-submerge so as not to get hooked by the demons.
I saw – and now
My heart still shudders as I tell it – one stay,
Just as it happens that while one jumps below
Another frog might linger where they lay:
And Graffiacane, who was nearest, hooked
Him by his pitch-thick hair, so it looked to me
As if he had caught an otter (I could connect
Each of them with his name, for I had noted
Carefully who they were when they were picked,
And also what they called each other.) They shouted,
“O Rubicante, grip him between your claws
And flay him.” “Master – this wretch who’s so ill-fated
And fallen into the hands of enemies:
I pray you, find out who he is,” I said.
Going to his side at once, he asked what place
He came from. “I was born,” replied the shade,
“In the kingdom of Navarre. My mother sent
Me to become the servant of a lord,
For she had borne me to a rascal bent
On destroying both himself and all he had.
Being admitted to the establishment
Of good King Thibaut’s household, I employed
Myself at barratry – which is the path
I pay for in this boiling.” So he said;
Then Ciriatto, the demon from whose mouth
Two boar-like tusks protruded, made him feel
How one of them could rip. The mouse in truth
Had come among some vicious cats; and still
Barbariccia locked him in a tight embrace,
Saying, “Stand back, while I enfork him well,”
But to my master: “Ask him what you please –
If there is more you’d like to learn from him
Before he’s butchered by another of us.”
So my guide asked, “Among the sinners who swim
Under the pitch, are any others you know
Italian?” He said “I parted with one who came
From there, just now. Would I were still below
Hidden with him, for then I’d need not dread
Their hooks and talons.”
Although this sinner is not names in the Comedie, he is called Ciampolo (John Paul) in the commentaries. He was born in Navarre, a small kingdom in the south of France (in the Pyrenees) and was the son of a waster, someone who squandered all his possessions and then killed himself. His mother then put him in service as a servant. He worked in the household of King Thibaut (in French, King Tebaldo in Italian, King Theobold in English, King Teobaldo in Spanish) and “employed myself in barratry”. It’s not certain which King Thibaut is referred to. Possibly and probably, King Thibault/Thibaut I and Count Thibaut IV (same person, different titles) (May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called Teobaldo el Póstumo, Teobaldo el Trovador, Theobald IV, Theobald the Posthumous, Theobald the Troubadour, Thibaud le Chansonnier, Thibaud le Posthume. He was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre (as Thibaut I) from 1234. His father was Theobald III of Champagne (French: Thibaut) (13 May 1179 – 24 May 1201) was Count of Champagne from 1197 to his death. He was the younger son of Henry I, Count of Champagne and Marie, a daughter of Louis VII of France and Eleanor of Aquitaine. Theobald married Blanche of Navarre. There was also, Thibaut II “Le Grand” de Champagne (2 Apr 1090-10 Jan 1152) (Thibaut II Count of Champagne and Thibaut IV Count of Blois, same person with two titles). He was the second eldest son of Etienne Henri de Blois and Adela of England. Thibaut was married to Mathilde of Carinthia who bore him eleven children. After the death of Henry I, he was proposed by the Norman barons to succeed him, as he was the eldest grandson of William the Conqueror. But his youngest brother Stephen was able to obtain the crown. In exchange, he received the regency over Normandy which he lost again in 1144 when Geoffrey Plantagenet, Count of Anjou, invaded the county.In the last canto, we defined barratry. Barratry is a form of political corruption, being the unscrupulous use of a politician’s authority for personal gain. Political graft occurs when funds intended for public projects are intentionally misdirected in order to maximize the benefits to private interests. Insider trading, bribes, influence peddling, embezzlement, misappropriation of funds. Political corruption in state affairs is like simony is in church affairs. Simony was punished in the 3rd bolgia.
Names of the demons again:
Malebranche – Evil claws
Malacoda – Evil tail
Scarmiglione – Matted hair
Alichino – Harlequin
Calcabrina – He who can walk on brine
Cagnazzo – Big dog
Barbariccia – Curly beard
Libicocco – Winds
Draghignazzo – Big dragon
Ciriatto – Wild hog
Graffiacane – Cat claws
Farfarello – Evil ghost
Rubicante – He who grows red
“Mia madre a servo d’un segnor mi puose,
che m’avea generato d’un ribaldo,
distruggitor di sé e di sue cose.
Poi fui famiglia del buon re Tebaldo;
quivi mi misi a far baratteria,
di ch’io rendo ragione in questo caldo.”
Notice the Italian words in bold above.
Ribaldo – means rascal, villain, scoundrel, rogue.
“The word was used by extension to indicate any man who led a vicious and dissipated life, who assiduously frequented taverns and brothels. The father of Ciampolo is here called ribaldo, ‘not because this was his social condition — he had a patrimony to destroy — but because he lived the life of a ribald, in its less humiliating but more vicious features: that is gaming, extravagant feasting, and frequenting brothels’.” – Natalino Sapegno, ed., Inferno [Firenze: La Nuova Italia, 1968], p. 244; also available through the Dartmouth Dante Project
Chiavacci Leonardi notes that it originally signified a man of the court (courtier) but later became a negative description because courtiers were known for negative habits: dissipation, whoring, gambling, being a rake. His father was not poor because he squandered his inheritance.
Famiglia – indicates that he became a familiaris of King Thibaut: familiaris is the technical term for a courtier in the service of a lord.
Ciampolo, in a few sentences, tells us his father had a good position in court as a courtier but he squandered his inheritance with bad behavior and then killed himself leaving his wife and son in poverty. Ciampolo’s mother puts him in service as a “servant of a lord” (“a servo d’un segnor”). He was born in excess but saw his father lose it all. Now he was in service to a minor lord or baron, surrounded by luxury and riches that are not his. He is ambitious and greedy. He is moved up in court to become a courtier to King Thibaut. He would want to, not only recoup what his father lost, but be even “better” than his father according to position and material wealth. He took the shortcut of barratry.
Then cried Libicocco,
“We have endured too much!” With that he clawed
His grapple into the other’s arm, and tearing
Ripped out a muscle. Draghignazzo also made
As if he meant to give his legs a goring,
At which their captain wheeled against them all.
When they were somewhat quiet, without deferring
His questions my leader asked the sinner, who still
Was staring at his wound: “Who was it you said
You parted from when you did yourself such ill
By coming ashore?” “Fra Gomita,” he replied,
“He of Gallura, vessel of every deceit,
Who kept the enemies that his master had
So cunningly in hand, they praised him for it.
He took their cash and sent them on their way
Smoothly, as he recounts. And he was great
In other enterprises, equally:
No petty barrator but a lordly one.
Don Michael Zanche of Logodoro and he
Keep company together; when they go on
About Sardinia their tongues don’t tire.
But O me – look at how that other demon
Is grinding his teeth! Though I would tell you more
I fear he’s getting ready to scratch my itch.”
To Farfarello, whose eyes rolled eager for gore,
Their marshal turned and shouted his reproach:
“Get back, vile bird!” The sinner: “If you would hear
Tuscans or Lombards, there are some I can fetch –
But let the Malebranche stand back there
So those who come will not fear their revenge,
And I will make some seven souls appear
For the lone one that I am – and I won’t change
My place from where I sit, but summon them
By whistling, as we do when we can emerge.”
Cagnazzo raised his muzzle at this claim;
Shaking his head from side to side, he said,
“Just listen to this cunning trick – his aim
Is to jump back below.” And he, who had
A great supply of wiles at his command
Replied, “It’s true that I am cunning indeed
At contriving greater sorrows for the band
I dwell with.” Then Alichino held himself in
No longer, and opposed the others: “My friend,”
He said, “if you dare plunge back in again,
I’ll not come merely galloping after you
But beating my sings above the pitch. The screen
Formed by the bank will hide us when we go
Down from this ridge: we’ll see if you, alone,
Are a match for all of us.” O reader, hear now
Of a new sport: led by the very one
Who first opposed it, all now turned their eyes
To the other shore. Timing exactly when,
Feet firm against the ground the Navarrese
Suddenly leaped and instantly broke free
Out of their custody. Each demon, at this,
Felt stung by his misdoing – especially he
Who caused the blunder. So crying out, “You’re caught!”
He flew away in pursuit, but futilely:
Wings could not gain on terror; down out of sight
The sinner dove, and the demon swooped back up,
Raising his breast – no different in his flight
Than when the wild duck makes a sudden escape
By diving just as the falcon plummets close,
Then veers back up, vexed at his thwarted grip.
Then Calcabrina, who was furious
The trick had worked, went flying after the pair
Eager to see the sinner evade the chase
So there could be a fight. When the barrator
Had disappeared, the demon turned his claws
Upon his comrade and grappled him in midair
Above the fosse. But his opponent was
A full-grown hawk equipped with claws to respond
Truly and well; and as they fought, the brace
Fell into the middle of the boiling pond.
The heat unclenched them at once; but though released
They could not rise, because their wings were gummed
And clotted. Barbariccia, like the rest
Lamenting, hastily dispatched a squad
Of four who flew across to the bank we faced.
Each with a fork; hurrying from either side
They descended to their posts with hooks extended
To the mired pair, already baked inside
Their crusts; and we two left them thus confounded.
Ciampolo plays a trick on all the demons. You will notice that in this bolgia, everyone is a trickster and liar. The demons and Ciampolo. Even those in the squad of demons cannot trust each other.
Ciampolo is unrepentant of his sin of barratry and graft. It seems that below the surface of the pitch, the barrators still boast of the tricks and deceits they committed in their life. Ciampolo calls Fra Gromita of Gallura, “no petty barrator but a lordly one” who was “great in other enterprises, equally”.
Ciampolo offers to signal more of the “Tuscans and Lombards” by whistling for them that it’s OK to emerge from the pitch. Again, using a signal the others would trust, in order to betray seven souls over to the demons to torture. He is willing to sell out seven other sinners by whistling that it’s OK to come out. He does this to save his own hide from being torn apart by the demon squad. But, as a twist, he used it as a trick to escape.
While the demons are arguing about whether or not it’s a trick, Ciampolo uses the diversion to jump back into the boiling tar. The demons go after him and, when frustrated, they turn on each other and begin fighting which causes them to end up in the boiling tar. The other demons work on getting them out and Virgil and Dante sneak away.
Dante has given us a picture of what happens when the lack of trust breaks down a society. When there is absolutely no trust between any parties, chaos ensues. I have another picture of my own. Let’s look at the medical profession. In the beginning, doctors and nurses were seen as ministering to the sick. They even take a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm to a human being and to attempt to cure and alleviate suffering. But what we see today is corruption in every single aspect of the medical profession. Doctors are in it for the money. Their practises are run like corporations. They work only when paid. They refuse patients who can’t pay. They overcharge, or even create charges, when they bill the medical insurance companies or Medicare/Medicaid (the government health insurance). But they certainly aren’t the only ones. Back in the 1970s and 1980’s medical insurance was fairly new and was to prevent medical catastrophes from destroying a family’s finances. Medical insurance didn’t pay for wellness visits, birth control, vaccinations, prevention. They only paid for accidents and sickness. But that was sort of silly. I mean, isn’t contraception cheaper than having babies? Isn’t vaccinations cheaper than a child getting polio or measles or something? Aren’t wellness visits good for prevention of disease? These kind of questions led to more and more medical insurance companies being asked to provide wellness and prevention coverage too. But medical insurance companies are not in the ministry. They are corporations who must make a profit or there is no reason to be in business. If all health insurance companies lost money, they would go out of business and there would be medical insurance for anyone. So they pulled several tricks. They refused to pay for any pre-existing conditions. They would look for every way possible to deny someone’s claim. They would take so much time reviewing a claim and tying up the employer/employee with requests for more information, more documentation, until the claim got “lost”. Most insurance companies have a time limit. They won’t pay a claim that is, say, 2 years in the past. So if they keep tying you up in red tape and taking their time to pay it, then the claim is soon enough out of the time limit. Meanwhile doctor’s offices are billing you, sending you to collection agencies, putting liens on your home for the unpaid bills. They would go up on premiums until it was too expensive for someone to carry coverage. These tricks helped them keep their profits high. But doctors and medical insurance companies aren’t the only ones with their hands in the bucket of money. There are hospitals who overbill and charge for things that aren’t done in order to get more money. I remember working on a man’s hospital charges and I asked for an itemized bill. Today, most hospital won’t give you an itemized list. The patient never even sees the bill, it goes straight to the insurance company. But back then I could get the itemized bill and we found he had been charged for his charges, but also for delivering a baby and the nursery charges!!! A man having a baby! Since we no longer see the itemized bill from the hospital, there is no telling what “mistakes” are made on the bills that insurance companies pay for. I can’t tell if there was a mistake or overcharges or extra charges if I never see the bill. When I was in the hospital myself one time, I was charged for pain pills I never received. How do you prove that you never received it after the fact? So hospitals are committing fraud and double dealing. Right now, with COVID 19 coronavirus, hospitals are pushing doctors to sign off on most deaths as COVID 19 related so they can get more federal government dollars. I’ve seen the news where people died of all kinds of things but definitely NOT COVID 19 but their death certificates will come back with a COVID 19 cause of death! That’s fraud! It’s why the COVID 19 cases and deaths are so high. I don’t trust those numbers. It’s too lucrative for hospitals and they lie. Then there are the big, expensive labs, testing facilities and big pharma that make money off of injuries and disease. They love it when people are sick or injured because they get to charge for all the tests, the medicines, rehabilitation, etc. It’s not in their best interests to find a cure for anything! And there are building contractors who are dipping into the big money of the medical industry. All these new hospitals and clinics, state of the art additions to hospitals, networks of outlying hospital clinics, etc. All are built by contractors and if there is a way to skimp here and there, overcharge for this and that, skimming and kickbacks… then you and I both know it happens. Greed is universal. Don’t forget the lawyers who make a good living off of ambulance chasing. They openly advertise on television to call them if you’ve been injured in an accident or have cancer because of using talcum powder, etc. They get hefty fees for each person who signs on to a class action lawsuit and most of the money will go to the lawyers. And although it’s usually based on greed, I can’t really blame the people who retain an attorney when they get in an accident or are hurt on the job. We’ve been in that situation too and dealing with the insurance company and the medical profession turned out to be impossible without an attorney. Stan suffered major head trauma when he was at work. He was polishing a piece of steel in a lathe when a defect in the steel cracked and the steel came out of that lathe like a steel baseball bat. Usually, when that happens, it hits the person and they are dead before they hit the floor. But it must have caught Stan a glancing blow. It was still bad. Although the company is covered with Worker’s Comp insurance, the hospital wanted Stan out of the hospital as soon as possible and so did WC insurance, so did his boss (the company’s WC insurance rates go up whenever there are claims made and it depends on how expensive the claims are as to how high their WC insurance premiums go up). It was in everybody’s interest to keep the medical expenses down and therefore they were ready to send him home the next morning. He could walk, talk and knew me. But he tried to make coffee in the blender. He was scrambled. I should not have let them send him home so soon. I should have immediately called an attorney. And, in the discharge, no one gave me paperwork that said he should stay out of work or go back to work. Without that, his company didn’t know when it was safe for him to be back at work. They wanted it sooner rather than later for the obvious reason above. Stan, himself, was insisting on going back to work even though he couldn’t even remember his own address and phone #. So one day I went back to the hospital who said they couldn’t give me documentation one way or the other (stay home or go back to work). I went to the neurologist’s office who saw him that night and he wouldn’t be able to see Stan again for a month and therefore his office wouldn’t give me the paperwork. I went back to the hospital to ask the admitting doctor in the ER and he refused to give me paperwork one way or the other. I was at a dead standstill. It wasn’t like I couldn’t understand where they were coming from but that didn’t help me and I was caught in the middle after just having gone through major trauma with my husband’s accident. So I called an attorney. I hated it; we didn’t like doing it; I don’t like that kind of thing. But when you are stuck, you have to do something. The insurance companies don’t want to pay. They want you to give up and go away. They make it nearly impossible to get your claims processed. They are such obstructionists and keep stalling. Meanwhile you have doctors wanting their money and the company wanting the employee to get over it and come back to work. You are pressured and squeezed into going to an attorney for relief. Next, are the people and families themselves. There are many unscrupulous people who want to dip into the money too. They will claim injuries they don’t really have in order to get money. They will fake illnesses in order to get money. They will collude with doctors in fraud so they can get a cut. Or they just want attention so they hang out at the ER and hospital as long as they can. There are regulars to Emergency Rooms. It’s the only place they can get a meal, something to drink, a shower and a bed (homeless people). Or it’s the only place someone will talk to them and give them attention. These are abuses that cost money and tie up the system. It’s fraud.
There is a lack of trust in the medical industry. There are good doctors, there are generous doctors, there are virtuous patients, there are honest contractors, there are honest workers in clinics, offices, labs, hospitals… but they are too few and far between. The whole system is rotten with corruption. Nearly every hand is greedily trying to grab the money in the bucket and it just keeps inflating. Something has to be done. But what? It’s such a huge problem now that I don’t have any idea of what would truly reform it. I do know that the government getting involved will only make matters worse. Every time they encroach into an industry with regulations and takeovers, it just makes matters so much worse. If it was corrupt at a degree of 7 out of 10, add the government and you will see the corruption quotient go up to 9.9 out of 10. You can look at Medicare and Medicaid and see how politicians have ruined it with their own corruption. When there is that much money involved then everyone wants a piece of it. It draws corruption like flies to a bloated, dead body. We are seeing how bad it can be, well, it can be worse once the government takes it over. Eventually the industry will collapse from all the corruption and fraud like a big rotten pumpkin. That’s what will happen when lack of trust breaks down a society. The demons will then turn on each other and devour each other.
Fra Gromita is Friar Gromita or Cromita Chancellor of Nino Visconti and Governor of the giudicato of Gallura. Sardinia was conquered by Pisa in 1117, and Frate Gomita’s lord was Nino Visconti, who ruled the giudicato of Gallura on behalf of Pisa from 1275-1296. Nino Visconti was Dante’s personal friend and grandson of the Pisan noble Ugolino della Gherardesca implicated later in the story of Ugolino. Fra Gromita betrayed Visconti. He accepted a bribe to let escape a group of Visconti’s enemies who were in his custody. For this he was hanged.
Lord Michel Zanche of Logodor was Governor of the giudicato of Logudoro, in Sardinia. He administered the province for King Enzo, son of the Emperor Frederick II. When Enzo was made prisoner in 1249, his wife divorced and married Zanche. The latter ruled Logudoro until 1290, when he was murdered by his son-in-law Branca Doria. The moment Branca Doria kills his father-in-law, he dies and a demon inhabits his body until his body dies. This is related in Canto 33. He was a walking dead. “In the ditch of the Malebranche above,” he said, “there where boils the sticky pitch, Michel Zanche had not yet arrived when this one (Branca) left a devil in his place in his own body” – Inferno Canto 33, verses 142-46.
In summary, the demons mean to betray Virgil and Dante when they get a chance. But they see a chance to grab a sinner out of the pitch in order to tear him to pieces. They capture Giampolo who offers to betray his friends to save himself. The demons begin arguing about whether or not they can trust Ciampolo and Ciampolo betrays them by using the diversion to jump back in the boiling pitch. Then the demons betray each other by turning on each other, falling into the pitch themselves. It’s a black comedy and the devils end up humiliated and Virgil and Dante take their cue to sneak off.
What does the Bible have to say about corruption, barratry, graft, the break down of trust?
Isaiah 1:21-23 (BSB) 21 See how the faithful city has become a harlot!
She once was full of justice;
righteousness resided within her,
but now only murderers!
22 Your silver has become dross;
your fine wine is diluted with water.
23 Your rulers are rebels,
friends of thieves.
They all love bribes
and chasing after rewards.
They do not defend the fatherless,
and the plea of the widow never comes before them.
Exodus 23:8 Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.
Isaiah 5:18-23 18 Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of deceit
and pull sin along with cart ropes,
19 to those who say, “Let Him hurry and hasten His work
so that we may see it!
Let the plan of the Holy One of Israel come
so that we may know it!”
20 Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who turn darkness to light
and light to darkness,
who replace bitter with sweet
and sweet with bitter.
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
and clever in their own sight.
22 Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
and champions in mixing beer,
23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe
and deprive the innocent of justice.
Isaiah 10:1-4 1 Woe to those who enact unjust statutes
and issue oppressive decrees,
2 to deprive the poor of fair treatment
and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people,
to make widows their prey
and orphans their plunder.
3 What will you do on the day of reckoning
when devastation comes from afar?
To whom will you flee for help?
Where will you leave your wealth?
4 Nothing will remain but to crouch among the captives
or fall among the slain.
Isaiah 59 1 Surely the arm of the LORD is not too short to save,
nor His ear too dull to hear.
2 But your iniquities have built barriers
between you and your God,
and your sins have hidden His face from you,
so that He does not hear.
3 For your hands are stained with blood,
and your fingers with iniquity;
your lips have spoken lies,
and your tongue mutters injustice.
4 No one calls for justice;
no one pleads his case honestly.
They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies;
they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity.
5 They hatch the eggs of vipers
and weave a spider’s web.
Whoever eats their eggs will die;
crack one open, and a viper is hatched.
6 Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing,
and they cannot cover themselves with their works.
Their deeds are sinful deeds,
and acts of violence are in their hands.
7 Their feet run to evil;
they are swift to shed innocent blood.
Their thoughts are sinful thoughts;
ruin and destruction lie in their wake.
8 The way of peace they have not known,
and there is no justice in their tracks.
They have turned them into crooked paths;
no one who treads on them will know peace.
9 Therefore justice is far from us,
and righteousness does not reach us.
We hope for light, but there is darkness;
for brightness, but we walk in gloom.
10 Like the blind, we feel our way along the wall,
groping like those without eyes.
We stumble at midday as in the twilight;
among the vigorous we are like the dead.
11 We all growl like bears
and moan like doves.
We hope for justice, but find none,
for salvation, but it is far from us.
12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You,
and our sins testify against us.
Our transgressions are indeed with us,
and we know our iniquities:
13 rebelling and denying the LORD,
turning away from our God,
speaking oppression and revolt,
conceiving and uttering lies from the heart.
14 So justice is turned away,
and righteousness stands at a distance.
For truth has stumbled in the public square,
and honesty cannot enter.
15 Truth is missing,
and whoever turns from evil becomes prey.
The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
16 He saw that there was no man;
He was amazed that there was no one to intercede.
So His own arm brought salvation,
and His own righteousness sustained Him.
17 He put on righteousness like a breastplate,
and the helmet of salvation on His head;
He put on garments of vengeance
and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.
The Covenant of the Redeemer
18 So He will repay according to their deeds:
fury to His enemies,
retribution to His foes,
and recompense to the islands.
19 So shall they fear the name of the LORD
where the sun sets,
and His glory where it rises.
For He will come like a raging flood,
driven by the breath of the LORD.
20 “The Redeemer will come to Zion,
to those in Jacob who turn from transgression,”
declares the LORD.
21 “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit will not depart from you, and My words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth or from the mouths of your children and grandchildren, from now on and forevermore,” says the LORD.
Ecclesiastes 7:7 Surely oppression drives the wise into madness, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
Deuteronomy 16:19 You shall not pervert justice. You shall not show partiality, and you shall not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous.
Deuteronomy 27:25 “‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Micah 3:11 Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the Lord and say, “Is not the Lord in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”
2 Timothy 3:1-4 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
Excerpts of Dante’s Inferno are from a new translation by Robert Pinsky.
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