Letter 753

To Gaudentius the Silentiary. [a silentiarius was a court usher who maintained silence in the imperial palace] "Gathering together," it says, "the waters of the sea as in a wineskin." [Psalm 32:7, Septuagint] That is to say, just as into a wineskin, so within the boundaries that have been set God gathers together the sea, and holds back the waters, not permitting them to pass beyond the feeblest sand and to cover the face of all the earth. Therefore, wishing to make this very thing clear, the holy Prophet adds, saying, "Laying up the deeps in storehouses"; that is, confining within the vessels and receptacles waters beyond all reckoning.

Συνάγων, φησίν, ὡσεὶ ἀσκὸν ὕδατα θαλάσσης. τουτέστιν ὥσπερ εἰς τὸν ἀσκὸν, οὕτως ἔνδον τῶν τεθέντων ὁρίων τὴν θάλασσαν ὁ Θεὸς συναθροίζει, καὶ κατέχει τὰ ὕδατα, μὴ συγχωρῶν ὑπερβῆναι τὴν ἀσθε- νεστάτην ψάμμον, καὶ πάσης τῆς γῆς τὸ πρόσωπον καλύψαι. Διὸ καὶ τοῦτο αὐτὸ βουλόμενος σαφηνίσαι ὁ ἅγιος Προφήτης, ἐπιφέρει λέγων· « Τιθεὶς ἐν θησαυ- ροῖς ἀβύσσους »· τουτέστιν, ἐν τοῖς ἄγγεσι καὶ δο- χείοις συνέχων ἀμύθητα ὕδατα.