Chapter XVI: Sins that Cry Out to Heaven, § 85.
CHAPTER XVI: ON SINS THAT CRY OUT TO HEAVEN
Some sins God overlooks, and some cry out to heaven.
§ 85. Twelfth, there are some sins which God in His long-suffering overlooks, ὑπεριδών, as the apostle says in Acts 17:30; and some are atrocious sins which cry out to heaven, which cry out to God and ask for revenge, even though people say nothing. Commonly, four such sins are listed, and they are included in the following short verses: Gen. 4:10: “The voice of his blood is crying to heaven”; Gen. 18:20: “[and the sin of the] Sodomites”; Exod. 3:7 and 22:23: “the cry of the oppressed”; James 5:4: “the unpaid wages of the laborers.” Some take the words of the prodigal son in this sense (Luke 15:21): “Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.” But some, more skillfully, take “heaven” for “God” by metonymy. “I have sinned against heaven,” that is, “against God,” in the way that Christ asks the Pharisees whether the Baptism of John was of heaven (Luke 20:4).
Angelus Caninius (Disquis. de obscur. locis N. T.) says, “To mean ‘God’ by the word ‘heaven’ is Syriac [usage].” See Drusius (Observ. sacr., bk. 5, ch. 11): “For a long time we have observed from the ancient works that ‘heaven’ is taken to mean God. Thus in 1 Macc. 3[:18]: ‘In the sight of heaven there is no difference between saving by many or saving by few’; and 1 Macc. 4:10: ‘Now let us cry to heaven to see if He will have mercy upon us.’ But even the masters” (the rabbis) “very often use it in this way, as when they say that all things are in the hand of heaven, and ‘Let the fear of heaven be upon you,’ and the word ‘heaven’ is constantly upon their lips. Thus if the fear of man has prevailed, it excludes the fear of heaven.” These are the words of Drusius.
But though only four sins which cry out to heaven are commonly numbered, yet all atrocious sins with which the measure of iniquity is filled (Gen. 15:16; Matt. 23:32; Amos 1:3; etc.) are rightly said to cry out to heaven and ask for the vengeance of God. In Rom. 8:22 it is said, “The whole creation is groaning,” that is, because of the bondage by which it is forced to serve the misuse of the wicked. In Hab. 2:11 the stones are said to cry out from the wall because the house was built by the oppression of the poor and by injustice. Ecclus. 35:[18]: “The tears of the widow run down her cheeks and cry out against him who summoned them forth.”