This also shall please the LORD better than an ox or bullock that has horns and hoofs.
Read Chapter 69
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
30. "Poor and sorrowful I am" (ver. 30). Why this? Is it that we may acknowledge that through bitterness of soul this poor One doth speak evil? For He hath spoken of many things to happen to them. And as if we were saying to Him, "Why such things?"-"Nay, not so much!" He answereth, "poor and sorrowful I am." They have brought Me to want, unto this sorrow they have set Me down, therefore I say these words. It is not, however, the indignation of one cursing, but the prediction of one prophesying. For He was intending to recommend to us certain things which hereafter He saith of His poverty and His sorrow, in order that we may learn to be poor and sorrowful. For, "Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven." And, "Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted." This therefore He doth Himself before now show to us: and so, "poor and sorrowful I am." The whole Body of Him saith this. The Body of Christ in this earth is poor and sorrowful. But let Christians be rich...
Hoofs. They were to be three years old. (Kimchi)
So Virgil says, (Æneid ix.) Jam cornu petatpedibus qui spargat arenam. (Ec. iii.) (Calmet)
Our prayers are therefore offered through our Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews xiii. 15. (Berthier)
Devout prayer is more acceptable than victims of the best description, though they were also good, (Worthington) and, cæteris paribus, of a higher dignity. (Haydock)
