Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor, him will I cut off: he that has a haughty look and a proud heart will I not endure.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
7. "Whose privily slandered his neighbour, him I persecuted"(ver. 5). Behold the righteous persecutor, not of the man, but of the sin. "With the proud eye, and the insatiable heart, I did not feed." What meaneth, "I did not feed with"? I did not eat in common with such. Attend, beloved; since ye are about to hear something wonderful. If he did not feed with this man, he did not eat with him; for to feed is to eat; how is it then that we find our Lord Himself eating with the proud? It was not only with those publicans and sinners, for they were humble: for they acknowledged their weakness, and asked for the physician. We find that He ate with the proud Pharisees themselves. A certain proud man had invited Him: it was the same who was displeased because a sinning woman, one of ill repute in the city, approached the feet of our Lord. ...That Pharisee was proud: the Lord ate with him; what is it therefore that he saith? "With such an one I did not eat." How doth He enjoin unto us what He h...
Persecute. Or abhor (Worthington) with a perfect hatred. We must show our displeasure if we hear detraction, (Haydock) that we may not partake in the crime. (St. Jerome)
The court is most likely to be infected with this vice, as people are continually endeavouring to supplant their rivals. (Calmet)
Secret thoughts of resentment must be stifled in their birth. (Eusebius)
Heart. Hebrew, "wide heart "which is sometimes taken in a good sense, 3 Kings iv. 29. But here it denotes the ambitious and misers, Proverbs xxviii. 25. (Calmet)
