Then they would have swallowed us up alive, when their wrath was kindled against us:
Read Chapter 124
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
3. "If the Lord Himself had not been in us, now may Israel say" (ver. 1) ...When? "When men rose up against us" (ver. 2). Marvel not: they have been subdued: for they were men; but the Lord was in us, man was not in us: for men rose up against us. Nevertheless men would crush other men, unless in those men who could not be crushed, there were not man, but the Lord. For what could men do to you, while ye rejoiced, and sang, and securely held everlasting bliss? what could men do to you when they rose against you, if the Lord had not been on your side? what could they do? "Perchance they had swallowed us up quick" (ver. 3). "Swallowed us up:" they would not first have slain us, and so have swallowed us up. O inhuman, O cruel men'! The Church swalloweth not thus. To Peter it was said, "Kill and eat:" not, Swallow quick. Because no man entereth into the body of the Church, save he be slain first? What he was dieth, that he may be what he was not. Otherwise, he who is not slain, and is not e...
Perhaps. This word is here affirmative. Hebrew, "Then. "Septuagint, "Surely. "(Calmet)
He modestly leaves it to others to judge what would have been the event if God had not sent help. The weak would have been destroyed, as soon as if they had become a prey to wild beasts, as Jonas was swallowed up. (Worthington)
See Proverbs i. 12. (Menochius)
