The steps of his strength shall be shortened, and his own counsel shall cast him down.
Read Chapter 18
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Step. He shall be greatly embarrassed, (Menochius) like a man in a narrow pass, (Calmet) beset with thorns. (Haydock) (Proverbs iv. 12.)
Septuagint, "the weakest have made a prey of his possessions. (Haydock)
11. For now as it were he puts forth ‘the steps of his strength,’ as often as he executes the violent acts of his power. But ‘the steps of his strength shall be straitened,’ in that the resources of his wickedness, which he now displays in his own gratification, punishment hereafter binds fast. It goes on;
And his own counsel shall cast him down.
12. Every bad man makes it his counsel now to aim at present things, to abandon the things of eternity, to do what is unjust, to sneer at what is just; but when the Judge of the just and unjust shall come, every ungodly person is ‘cast down by his counsel,’ in that for this that he chose to go after here with bad intent, he is drowned in the darkness of eternal woe. For that man whom temporal glory uplifts here, punishment without end there sinks down. He who here revels in self-gratification, is there tortured with everlasting vengeance. And it often happens that the very prosperity of this life, which is so eagerly hankered after by...
