You have shown your people hard things: you have made us to drink the wine of astonishment.
Read Chapter 60
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
5. The first labour is, that thou shouldest be displeasing to thyself, that sins thou shouldest battle out, that thou shouldest be changed into something better: the second labour, in return for thy having been changed, is to bear the tribulations and temptations of this world, and amid them to hold on even unto the end. Of these things therefore when he was speaking, while pointing out such things, he addeth what? "Thou hast shown to Thy people hard things" (ver. 3): to Thy people now, made tributary after the victory of David. "Thou hast shown to Thy people hard things." Wherein? In persecutions which the Church of Christ hath endured, when so much blood of martyrs was spilled. "Thou hast given us to drink of the wine of goading." "Of goading" is what? Not of killing. For it was not a killing that destroyeth, but a medicine that smarteth. "Thou hast given us to drink of the wine of goading."
Sorrow. Hebrew, "muddy "such as is given to slaves or malefactors, (Matthew xxvii. 34.) mixed with myrrh, or venom. Literally, "wine of trembling "(Calmet) or soporiferous. (St. Jerome) (Haydock)
All these expressions give the idea of something disagreeable. (Berthier)
The people became penitent, or were astonished. (Menochius)
