By his spirit he has adorned the heavens; his hand has pierced the fleeing serpent.
Read Chapter 26
Ephrem The Syrian
AD 373
These words eloquently signify the perceptible serpent that must be annihilated by Christ’s death. He calls Satan a fleeing and deserting serpent in order to indicate his flight from the company of the heavenly powers, and also because he hoped to escape the punishment of his crime. - "Commentary on Job 26.13"
Heavens, with stars, Psalm xxxii. 6., and Wisdom i. 7. God also sends winds to disperse the clouds, that the heavens may appear. (Calmet)
Artful, (obstetric ante) "being the midwife. "The least things are ruled by Providence. (Worthington)
Serpent; a constellation, lightning, the devil, or rather the leviathan, Isaias xxvii. 1. (Drusius) (Calmet)
Septuagint, "by his decree, he killed the apostate dragon. "(Haydock)
But there is no need of having recourse to allegory. (Calmet)
48. What ‘heavens,’ saving those concerning whom it is written, The heavens are telling the glory of God? [Ps. 19, 1] Which ‘heavens His Spirit garnished’ then, when It ‘filled’ them. Which we have learnt by Luke’s relating, who saith, Suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting; and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance. [Acts 2, 2–4 ] From Him, then, they received the adornments of prowess, whom an exceeding disfigurement of fear before had possession of. For we know that first one of the Apostles, i.e. of the ‘heavens,’ how often, before the grace of the Holy Spirit was vouchsafed, whilst he feared to die, he denied ‘the Life;’ who not by punishments, not by inflictions, not by the dreadful power of anyone, but by the simple interrogation...
