The LORD is righteous: he has cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
Read Chapter 129
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
7. "The righteous Lord shall hew the necks of the sinners" (ver. 4). ...Which of us doth not fix his eyes upon the earth, like the Publican, and say, "Lord, be merciful unto me a sinner"? If therefore all are sinners, and none is found without sin; all must fear the sword that hangs above their neck, because "the righteous Lord shall hew the necks of the sinners." I do not imagine, my brethren, of all sinners; but in the member which He striketh, He marks what sinners He striketh. For it is not said, The righteous Lord will hew the hands of the sinners; or their feet; but because proud sinners were meant to be understood, and all proud men carry lofty necks, and not only do evil deeds, but even refuse to acknowledge them to be such, and when they are rebuked, justify themselves: ...as it is written in Job (he was speaking of an ungodly sinner), "he runneth against God, even upon his neck, upon the thick bosses of his bucklers;" so he here nameth the neck, because it is thus thou exalte...
Necks. Hebrew, "collars "(Theodotion) "snares "(Symmachus) or "bands "with which they have oppressed us. Cyrus abandoned the Babylonians to be slaves of those Persians who had taken them, and made them till the land (Zenoph. vii.) (Calmet)
