Let them be desolate as a reward for their shame that say unto me, Aha, aha.
Read Chapter 40
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
25. "Let them speedily bear away their own confusion, that say unto me, Well done! Well done!" (ver. 15). They praise you without reason. "A great man! A good man! A man of education and of learning; but why a Christian?" They praise those things in you which you should wish not to be praised; they find fault with that at which you rejoice. But if perhaps you say, "What is it you praise in me, O man? That I am a virtuous man? A just man? If you think this, Christ made me this; praise Him." But the other says, "Be it far from you. Do yourself no wrong! You yourself made yourself such." "Let them be confounded who say unto me, Well done! Well done!" And what follows?
'Tis well. The Hebrew here is an interjection of insult and derision, like the Vah, Matthew xxvii. 40. (Challoner)
As St. Jerome here expresses it, Vah, Vah. See Mark xv. 29. (Menochius)
The Jews have now become objects of contempt, (Calmet) a just punishment (Haydock) of scoffers, who wish evil to the good.
