Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him, and for a belt with which he is girded continually.
Read Chapter 109
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
19. "This is the work of them that slander me before the Lord" (ver. 19). He said not, "their reward," but, "their work:" for it is clear that by the clothing, covering, water, oil, and girdle, he was describing the very works by which eternal curses are procured. It is not then one Judas, but many, of whom it is said, "This is the work of them that slander me before the Lord." Although indeed the plural number might have been put for the singular; even as, when Herod died, it was said by the Angel, "They are dead which sought the young Child's life." But who slander Christ more before the Lord, than they who slander the very words of the Lord, by declaring that it is not He whom the Law of the Lord and His Prophets announced beforehand? "And of those that speak evil against my soul:" by denying that He, when He had willed, could have arisen: though He saith, "I have power to lay down My life, and I have power to take it again."
Work. They effect their own ruin. (Haydock)
The Jews pretended to act for the glory of God, being influenced with a zeal without knowledge. Some translate, "let such be the recompense "which is not amiss. (Berthier)
