OLD TESTAMENTNEW TESTAMENT

Jeremiah 5:8

They were as fed horses in the morning: everyone neighed after his neighbor's wife.
Read Chapter 5

Athanasius the Apostolic

AD 373
Let us then, as is becoming, as at all times, yet especially in the days of the feast, be not hearers only, but doers of the commandments of our Savior. Having imitated the behavior of the saints, we may enter together into the joy of our Lord who is in heaven, which is not transitory but truly abides.… But they who are not doers are compared, in their disgrace, with beasts without understanding, and becoming like them in unlawful pleasures, they are spoken of as wanton horses. Also, for their craftiness, errors and being laden with death, they are called, by John, a “generation of vipers.” - "Festal Letters 2.2"

Basil the Great

AD 379
Humanity … did not understand and neglected to follow God and to become like his Creator. And becoming a slave of the passions of the flesh, “he is compared with senseless beasts and is become like them.” Now he is like an amorous horse that neighs after his neighbor’s wife. Now like a ravenous wolf, lying in wait for strangers, but at another time, because of his deceit toward his brother, he makes himself like the villainous fox. Truly, there is excessive folly and beast-like lack of reason that he, made according to the image of the Creator, neither perceives his own from the beginning nor even wishes to understand such great dispensations that were made for his sake. At least, he should learn his own dignity from them, but he is unmindful of the fact, and he throws aside the image of the heavenly, but he has taken up the image of the earthly. - "Homilies on the Psalms 19.8 (Ps 48)"

Basil the Great

AD 379
Fasting can be utilized as a weapon against demonic armies: “For this kind does not come out except through prayer and fasting.” Many good things come from fasting, but being satiated introduces the beginnings of insolence. It immediately rushes in alongside the delicacy you are eating and it accompanies rich sauces. All kinds of licentious behavior begin grazing at its table. After this, men start becoming “lusty horses” toward women because all this luxury begins to start a maddening itch that enters into their soul. Those who get drunk begin perverting themselves against nature, using a male like a female, or vice versa. Fasting, by contrast, reveals the proper boundaries for marriage. It curtails the excesses of even those things that may be permitted by law but that are abstained from by agreement so that the couple can devote themselves to prayer. But we should not limit the goodness of fasting only to abstaining from foods. True fasting, in whatever form, is the enemy of evil. “...

Basil the Great

AD 379
Angels do not change. Not one of them is a child, or a young man, or an old man, but in whatever state they were created, in the beginning, in that state they remain. Their substance is preserved pure and inviolate for them. But we change in our body, as has been shown, and in our soul and in the inner person, always shifting our thoughts with the circumstances. In fact, we are one sort of person when we are cheerful and when all things in our life are moving forward with the current. But we are another sort in precarious times, when we stumble against something that is not according to our wishes. We are changed through anger, assuming a certain savage state. We are also changed through our lusts of carnal things, becoming like beasts through a life of pleasure. “They become amorous horses,” being madly in love with their neighbors’ wives. The deceitful person is compared with a fox, as Herod was. The shameless person is called a dog, like Nabel the Carmelian. Do you see the variety a...

Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
Rebuking censures what is base and highlights what is noble. This is shown by Jeremiah: “They were horses mad for females. Each one neighed for his neighbor’s wife. Shall I not visit them for these things? says the Lord. Should not I avenge my soul against such a nation as this?” He everywhere interweaves fear, because “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of reason.” - "Christ the Educator 1.9"
< 1 min5/12

Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
If birth is an evil, then the blasphemers must place the Lord who went through birth and the virgin who gave him birth in the category of evil. Abominable people! In attacking birth they are maligning the will of God and the mystery of creation. This is the basis of Cassian’s docetism, Marcion’s too, yes, and Valentinus’s “semi-spiritual body.” It leads them to say, “Humanity became like cattle in coming to sexual intercourse.” But it is when a man, swollen with lust, really and truly wants to go to bed with a woman not his own, that that sort of man actually becomes a wild beast. “They turned into stallions crazed for mares; each was whinnying for his neighbor’s wife.” - "Stromateis 3.17.102.1–3"

Clement Of Alexandria

AD 215
At another time, he speaks of us under the figure of a colt. He means by that that we are unyoked to evil, unsubdued by wickedness, unaffected and high-spirited only with him our Father. We are colts, not stallions “who whinny lustfully for their neighbor’s wife,” beasts of burden unrestrained in their lust. Rather, we are free and newly born, joyous in our faith, and hold fast to the course of truth. We are swift in seeking salvation, and we spurn and trample on worldliness. - "Christ the Educator 15"
< 1 min7/12

Cyril of Jerusalem

AD 386
The neighing horse depicts the recklessness of young men. - "Catechetical Lectures 9.13"
< 1 min8/12

George Leo Haydock

AD 1849
Stallions. Hebrew mashcim, (Haydock) "stretching out "as others translate, Ezechiel xxiii. 20. (St. Jerome) The horse is the most intemperate of all animals but man. (Aristotle, Hist. vi. 22.)
< 1 min9/12

Irenaeus of Lyons

AD 202
The prophets compare them to irrational animals, because of the irrationality of their conduct: “They have become like horses lusting for females. Each one of them neighs for his neighbor’s wife.” And again, “Man, when he is honored, was made to be like cattle.” This means that, for his own fault, he is compared with cattle, rivaling their irrational life. And we also, as the custom is, do designate people like this as cattle and irrational beasts. - "Against Heresies 5.8.3"
< 1 min10/12

John Chrysostom

AD 407
Some are so cold and senseless that they are always looking only for the things that are here and saying such things as, “Let me enjoy all the present things for a time, and then I will consider things out of sight. I will gratify my belly. I will be a slave to pleasures. I will make full use of the present life; give me today, and take tomorrow.” What foolishness! How are these people any different from goats and swine? For if the prophet allows that they are not to be considered human when they “neigh after their neighbor’s wife,” who shall blame us for considering them to be goats and swine and more insensible than donkeys when they hold as uncertain those things that, in the end, are even more evident than what we see? - "Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew 13.7"

Salvian the Presbyter

AD 429
Murder is rare among slaves because of their dread and terror of capital punishment, but it is common among the rich because of their hope and trust in impunity. Perhaps we are wrong in putting in the category of sins what the rich people do, because, when they kill their slaves, they think that it is legal and not a crime. Not only this, they abuse the same privilege even when practicing the filth of unchastity. How few among the rich, observing the sacrament of marriage, are not dragged down headlong by the madness of lust? To how few are not home and family regarded as harlots? How few do not pursue their madness toward anybody on whom the heat of their evil desires centers? It was about such people that the divine Word said, “They are become as stallions rushing madly on the mares.” - "The Governance of God 4.5"

Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation - 2 Peter 1:20

App Store LogoPlay Store Logo