He that speaks flattery to his friends, even the eyes of his children shall fail.
Read Chapter 17
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
He. My friend. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "speaketh flattery "(Haydock) or promiseth to caress me, while he neglects his own children. But the sense of the Vulgate and Chaldean seem preferable. My friends speak as if they could do any thing, and as if no trial would stagger their resolution. But they durst not be in my situation for a short time. (Calmet)
Like hunters, who have promised their children some prey, my friends will not, however, gain the victory over me. (Menochius)
“Set me free and put me beside you, and let the hand of anyone fight against me,” for Christ did not sin, either in thought or deed. He was made to “abide in bitterness” by his passion. He was “set free” by resurrection. He was “put beside” the Father by his ascension, in that having gone up into heaven he sits on the right hand of God. And because, after the glory of his ascension, Judea was stirred up in persecuting his disciples, it is rightly said here, “Let the hand of anyone fight against me.” For the madness of the persecutors did then rage on Christ’s members, and the flame of cruelty blazed out against the life of the faithful. But where should the wicked go, or what should they do, while he whom they persecuted on earth is now seated in heaven? Concerning whom it is yet further added, “You have removed their heart far from discipline. Therefore they shall not be exalted.” If they had been acquainted with the keeping of discipline, and had not ever despised the precepts of our...
38. After that blessed Job had uttered a sentence relating to the multitude of the wicked, i.e. the body of our old enemy; he directly shifts the sentence to the very leader of them, i.e. the head of all the children of perdition, and returns from the plural to the singular number: for the devil and all wicked people are so one body, that it very often happens that the body is rated with the name of the head, and the head designated by the title of the body. Thus the body is rated with the name of the head, when it is said of a bad man, And one of you is a devil. [John 6, 70] And again the head is designated by the title of the body, when it is said of the apostate Angel himself, A man [Vulg. ‘inimicus homo’] that is an enemy hath done this. [Matt. 13, 28] Thus the prince of all the wicked has some for ‘associates’ and some as ‘children.’ For who are his associates, but those apostate Angels, who fell with him from the seat of the heavenly country? or what others has he as childr...
