And he would gladly have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
Read Chapter 15
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat. So those who foolishly squander their possessions on others, find none to give them even husks in their misery and want. S. Chrysostom (Serm1) says, "Hunger, to luxury a torment, is now his lot, that where his guilt had been flagrant there an avenging punishment might rage." And again, "How cruel a service! He lives with unclean animals, yet does not share in their feast. Wretched man that he is; half famished, he hungers for the swine"s coarse food, yet does not obtain it.
S. Jerome (Epist146) here remarks, "that the Devil, when he has brought a man into subjection, fires his soul with desires of all kinds, but cheats him of their gratification, that by longing after them he may increase his guilt, and by failing to gratify them may add to his punishment and misery." Such is the deceitfulness and the tyranny of Satan. "Husks" are the empty pods of beans, peas, and the like, which fill but do not nourish th...
Husks. This expresses the extreme misery of his condition. There is no need of seeking any other mystery in this word. Horace, by a kind of hyperbole, (B. ii, Ep. 1.) represents the miser as living upon husks to be able to save more. Vivit siliquis et pane secundo.
And no man gave unto him; i.e. gave him bread, mentioned before; for as for the husks, he could take what he pleased. (Witham)
