You have given a banner to them that fear you, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah.
Read Chapter 60
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
6. Wherefore this? "Thou hast given to men fearing Thee, a sign that they should flee from the face of the bow" (ver. 4). Through tribulations temporal, he saith, Thou hast signified to Thine own to flee from the wrath of fire everlasting. For, saith the Apostle Peter, "Time it is that Judgment begin with the House of God." And exhorting the Martyrs to endurance, when the world should rage, when slaughters should be made at the hands of persecutors, when far and wide blood of believers should be spilled, when in chains, in prisons, in tortures, many hard things Christians should suffer, in these hard things, I say, lest they should faint, Peter saith to them, "Time it is that Judgment begin with the House of God," etc. What therefore is to be in the Judgment? The bow is bended, still in menacing posture it is, not yet in aiming. And see what there is in the bow: is there not an arrow to be shot forward? The string however is stretched back in a contrary direction to that in which it is...
Warning, to amend, (Worthington) the sign of the cross (Calmet) in baptism, (St. Jerome) or confirmation. (Eusebius)
It was customary to erect a pole, on which some signal was placed, in case of invasion, Isaias v. 26., and xi. 12. (Calmet)
Bow. Hebrew kossoth, (Haydock) as St. Jerome, have read, though the present Hebrew end with t, less correctly, and is explained, "because of the truth. "(Calmet) (Berthier)
