Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows upon your strings toward their face.
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Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
13. "For Thou shalt set them low." For Thou shalt rank them among those from whom in degradation and contempt Thou wilt turn away. "In Thy leavings Thou shalt make ready their countenance" (ver. 12). And in these things that Thou leavest, that is, in the desires of an earthly kingdom, Thou shalt make ready their shamelessness for Thy passion.
In thy remnants thou shalt prepare their face: or thou shalt set thy remnants against their faces. That is, thou shalt make them see what punishment remain for them hereafter from thy justice. Instead of remnants, St. Jerome renders it funes, that is cords or strings: viz., of the bow of divine justice, from which God directs his arrows against the faces of his enemies. (Challoner) "Thou wilt strengthen thy cords against their faces "(St. Jerome) or "thou wilt prepare thy arrows on thy bow-strings "But as bemetharic (Haydock) may also have the sense of the Vulgate, in thy remnants, we need not abandon this version; as it implies that after God shall have put his enemies to flight, he will turn their faces to receive "the last "of his arrows or blows; (Berthier) or He will meet them everywhere. (Haydock)
There seems to be some transposition in Hebrew and the Vulgate, as if we should read in reliquis eorum præparabis vultum tuum. "Thou wilt execute thy vengeance upon their children "(Ca...
