_These. Solomon wrote 3,000, and we have only 915 verses extant. (Calmet) --- The rest perhaps shewed his genius, but were less useful. (Tostat. in 3 Kings iv. 9.) --- Men. Isaias, Sobna, &c. (Calmet) --- Out of other records, (Menochius) or "translated" into a language better understood. (Denis the... [ Continue Reading ]
_Speech. The Scriptures will denounce the truth to them, and shew them how to reign with justice. We must adore the mysteries of God; but are allowed to examine the secret designs of princes._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Unsearchable. Their counsellors must not betray their secrets, Tobias xii. 7. The greatest enterprises depend on secrecy._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Justice. The wicked in a kingdom resemble rust on silver. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Glorious, or a boaster. (Haydock) --- We must not seek the first places, Luke xiv. 10. Vive sine invidia, mollesque inglorius annos_ Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares. (Ovid, Trist. iii. 4.)... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not. Septuagint, "repent when thy friend may reproach thee." (Haydock) --- Friend. A word spoken in haste may expose him to ridicule._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Stranger. It sometimes happens that friends fall out; but if either disclose the secret of the other, he will be deemed infamous. (Calmet) (Josephus, contra Apion 2.) --- St. Ambrose says of his brother Satyrus, "though we had all things in common, yet the secret of our friends was not so."_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Grace, &c., is no in Hebrew, Complutensian, St. Jerome, &c. But it is in the Septuagint, "favour and friendship may give liberty; which keep thou for thyself, that thou mayst not be exposed to great shame. But guard thy ways unchangeably." (Haydock) --- Avoid quarrels._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Time, (Symmachus) "on its wheels," (Hebrew) flowing smoothly, (Calmet) or "according to his two faces, is apples of gold in network of silver. The Scriptures have a double sense. The exterior one leads to that sense which is interior, and more excellent. (Maimonides) (Parkhurst, p. 366.) --- Gold,... [ Continue Reading ]
_Bright. Hebrew chali cathem, "an ornament of fine gold," (Montanus; Protestants; Haydock) may probably denote a collar or ring. The eastern nations wore rings fixed at the top of the ears, and under the nose. Some were so large that they put their meat through them. The Scripture often alludes to t... [ Continue Reading ]
_Harvest. In June and July, when the heat was most intense, people of quality had snow from Libanus to mix with what they drank, Jeremias xviii. 14. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Hardness. Hebrew and Septuagint, "bones." (Haydock)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Up. We must moderate the sensual appetite, (Menochius) and even the study of wisdom, which is compared to honey, chap. xxiv. 13., Romans xii. 3., and Ecclesiastes vii. 17. (Calmet) --- We must not be too familiar, ver. 17. (Ven. Bede) (Cajetan)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Having. Hebrew, "being tired of thee." No man is so perfect, but he will manifest some defect, and become importunate. (Calmet) Nulli te facias nimis sodalem. (Martial)_... [ Continue Reading ]
And. Protestants, "as he that taketh away a, &c., and as vinegar....to a heavy heart." (Haydock) --- The former sentence may be joined with the preceding, as it is improper to deprive a person of his garment, no less than to trust in the faithless; though some would suppose (Calmet) that this conduc... [ Continue Reading ]
_Coals of charity; (St. Chrysostom in Romans xii. 20.) or, if he prove obstinate, his punishment will be the greater. (Geier.) --- The former sense is more received. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rain; (Symmachus; Protestants) or marginal note, "bringeth forth rain." (Haydock) --- But St. Jerome, who live in the country, knew that this wind was rather dry; and therefore he has abandoned the Septuagint, raiseth the clouds," Job xxxvii. 9., Joel ii. 20., and Ecclesiasticus xviii. 23. The coun... [ Continue Reading ]
_It is. Chap. xxi. 9. Sixtus V does not insert this verse here._... [ Continue Reading ]
_Tidings. Hebrew and Septuagint. The Vulgate seems rather to speak of a "good messenger." Homer said that a good messenger honoured the business most. (Pindar, Pyth. viii.) (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Falling into disgrace, or sin, occasions the wicked to exult, as if there were no God or religion. (Calmet)_... [ Continue Reading ]
_Majesty, viz., of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which hit cannot comprehend. (Challoner) --- When the Church proposes to us any myste... [ Continue Reading ]
_Speaking. He lays himself open to every attack, chap. xxix. 11._... [ Continue Reading ]
CHAPTER XXV.... [ Continue Reading ]