If the scourge slays suddenly, he will laugh at the plight of the innocent.
Read Chapter 9
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Innocent. Having expressed his sentiments clearly, now he mentions what he could desire under the pressure of misery. (Menochius)
Seeing the danger of falling, to which he was exposed, he begged to be delivered by death. We are taught by our Saviour to pray, Lead us not into temptation, Matthew vi. 13. God does not laugh at our sufferings, but he acts like a surgeon, and cuts without minding our complaints. Ridere Dei est humanæ nolle afflictioni misereri. (St. Gregory) (Calmet)
Hebrew, "If the scourge slay suddenly, he will laugh at the trial of the innocent. "(Protestants) (Haydock)
41. Who would not suppose that this was uttered in pride, unless he heard the sentence of the Judge, Who pronounces, For ye have not spoken of Me the thing that is right, as My servant Job hath. [Job 42, 7] Therefore it follows, that no one dare to find fault with the author's words, which it appears the Judge commends. But they must be sifted in their inner sense with the greater wariness and nicety, in proportion as they sound the harder on the outside. Thus the holy man surveying the woes of mankind, and considering whence they came, how that man, in consequence of the promise of his enemy, desiring to obtain the knowledge of good and evil, lost his very self too, so that he may say with truth, Though I were perfect, yet my soul shall not know it; how that after the punishment of exile he is further subject to the scourges of corruption, and even after being tormented is still tending to the death of the body, or indeed to the death of the soul, so that he may well say, He destr...
