And, behold, one in the likeness of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spoke, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, because of the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
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Aquinas Study Bible
AD 2017
at the sight of you my joints are loosed: By this he meant a certain dislocation of the bones which takes place when the soul falls into an ecstasy. But it is not to be supposed that these visits of God are always attended by such terrors and distress of nature: that happens to them only who are entering the state of illumination and perfection, and in this kind of communication; for in others they come with great sweetness. (St. John of the Cross)
My inwards are turned (A. V., my sorrows are turned upon me). For it was meet that, at the appearing of the Lord, what was above should be turned beneath, in order that also what was beneath might come above.— I require time, he says, to recover myself, and to be able to endure the words and to make reply to what is said.— But while I was in this position, he continues, I was strengthened beyond my hope. For one unseen touched me, and straightway my weakness was removed, and I was restored to my former strength. For whenever all the strength of our life and its glory pass from us, then are we strengthened by Christ, who stretches forth His hand and raises the living from among the dead, and as it were from Hades itself, to the resurrection of life.
Theodotion interprets it this way, in accordance with what we read in the One Hundred and Second Psalm [i.e. the 103rd]: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name." For our inward nature must direct its gaze without, before we deserve to behold a vision of God; and when we actually have beheld a vision of God, then our inward nature is converted within us and we become wholly of the number of those concerning whom it is written in another Psalm: "All the glory of the daughter of kings (B) is within, in golden borders" (Ps. 44:14).
