The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; they have spread a net by the wayside; they have set traps for me. Selah.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
7. "The proud have hidden a trap for me" (ver. 5). He hath briefly described the whole body of the devil, when he saith, "the proud." Hence is it that for the most part they call themselves righteous when they are unrighteous. Hence is it that nothing is so grievous to them as to confess their sins. They are men who, being falsely righteous, must needs envy the truly righteous. For none envieth another in that which he wisheth not either to be or to seem. ...Hence come all allurings and trippings up of others. This the devil first wished, when falling himself he envied man who stood. ...
8. But those "proud ones have hidden a trap for me;" they have sought to trip up my steps. And what have they done? "And have stretched out cords as traps." What cords? The word is well known in holy Scripture, and elsewhere we find what "cords" signify. For "each one is holden with the cords of his sins," saith Scripture. And Esaias saith openly, "Woe to them that draw sin like a long rope." And wh...
