But you, O God, shall bring them down into the pit of destruction: bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in you.
Read Chapter 55
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
24. But to the others what? "But Thou, O God, shall bring them down unto the pit of corruption" (ver. 23). The pit of corruption is the darkness of sinking under. When blind leadeth blind, they both fall into a ditch. God bringeth them down into the pit of corruption, not because He is the author of their own guilt, but because He is Himself the judge of their iniquities. "For God hath delivered them unto the desires of their heart." For they have loved darkness, and not light; they have loved blindness, and not seeing. For behold the Lord Jesus hath shone out to the whole world, let them sing in unity with the whole world: "For there is not one that can hide himself from the heat of Him." But they passing over from the whole to a part, from the body to a wound, from life to a limb cut off, shall meet with what, but going into the pit of corruption?
25. "Men of bloods and of deceitfulness." Men of bloods, because of slayings he calleth them: and O that they were corporal and not spi...
Destruction; "into gehenna "(Chaldean) or "hell "(St. Jerome) to which the judge sentences the reprobate, without promoting their crimes. (St. Augustine) (Calmet)
Days. It is rare that murderers and notorious malefactors escape punishment in this world; but in the next, they will surely be requited. Absalom perished in the flower of his age. (Berthier)
Achitophel, and many others, have been suddenly cut off. God sometimes permits such to reign for a time, to exercise his servants, or that they may repent. (St. Augustine)
The Scripture often threatens sinners in this manner, Job xxi. 21., and Isaias lxv. 20. (Calmet)
Their days are indeed spent, when they die. But if they had altered their conduct, they might have prolonged their life, (Haydock) according to the usual course of nature. (Worthington) (Menochius)
