For I am become like a wineskin in the smoke; yet do I not forget your statutes.
Read Chapter 119
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
83. But when spiritual desires burn, carnal desires without doubt cool: on this account followeth, "Since I am become like a bottle in the frost, I do not forget Thy righteousnesses" (ver. 83). Truly he desireth this mortal flesh to be understood by the bottle, the heavenly blessing by the frost, whereby the lusts of the flesh as it were by the binding of the frost become sluggish; and hence it ariseth that the righteousnesses of God do not slip from the memory, as long as we do not meditate apart from them; since what the Apostle saith is brought to pass: "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof." "And I do not forget Thy righteousness:" that is, I forget them not, because I have become such. For the fervour of lust hath cooled, that the memory of love might glow.
Like a bottle in the frost. In the Hebrew, like a bottle in the smoke. That is, I am become, through my sufferings in this mortal pilgrimage, as a leathern bottle, shrunk up because of being exposed to the frost or smoke. (Challoner)
So the bodies of the just are exposed to mortification, that they may become like new bottles, capable of containing the new wine of the gospel doctrine, Matthew ix. 17. (Worthington)
Goats' skins, with the hair inward, are still used in some places to contain liquors. (Calmet)
They were hung over the smoke, to make the wine old, or fit for drinking sooner. (Colum. i. 6.) Amphoræ fumum bibere institutæ, Consule Tullo. (Horace 3. Od. 8.) (Calmet)
