He breaks me with breach upon breach, he runs upon me like a warrior.
Read Chapter 16
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Lances. Hebrew, "archers. "Septuagint, "they have encompassed me, throwing lances into my veins, or loins, not sparing "(Haydock)
Bowels. Hebrew and Septuagint, "gall "being afflicted with a dysentery. St. Thomas Aquinas explains it of his children, who were slain. (Haydock)
19. These particulars would seem to accord with blessed Job after the letter, in that it is said, He hath compassed me with His lances, He hath wounded my loins together, He hath not spared; if that were not added, which is not read as written about him, he hath poured out my bowels upon the ground. From which circumstance it follows, that whereas we cannot find this after the letter, we should investigate after the spirit those points, which in his words sound as of the fact of history. Holy Church is ‘beset with lances’ by her enemy, whensoever she is in her members assaulted by the cunning assailant with the darts of temptation; and it is well said that we are ‘encompassed with lances,’ in that our old enemy assails us on every side with the wounding of temptation. Thus oftentimes whilst the appetite is restrained, that lust may be brought under, the dart of vainglory strikes the mind; but if the body is not worn down by the infliction of abstinence, the flame of lust kindles it...
