Historical chapter commentary
Verse 1. Glory. The offspring of the chaste is happy, ( Calmet.) and honourable: ( Bible.) very different from that of adulterers. Calmet.—Bodily chastity is a great virtue; but purity of faith is more requisite to please God, being the foundation of all virtues. Worthington.
Verse 2. Itself. Virtue extorts the esteem even of worldlings. Antiochus wept for Onias. 2 Maccabees 4:37. Calmet.—Sublatum ex oculis quærimus invidi. Hor. iii. od. 24.—Conflicts. In the cause of continence. Calmet.
Verse 3. Slips. Vitulamina, a word, to which the people were so habituated, that it could not be altered. Saint Augustine de Doct. xii.—Yet some read better ( Calmet.) plantationes. S. Bonav. Lyran.—The offspring of the unchaste will not prosper. Calmet. 3:16.
Verse 6. Beds. Lit. “sleep,” somnis, υπνων. Calmet. 7:2. Bible.—Whether the children live or die, they are a reproach to their parents, as those who see them enquire about their birth.
Verse 7. Death. He is always ready; but dies in his youth. Calmet.—Whenever death comes, it is for his advantage, and if he depart in his youth, his immaculate life is to be preferred before the old age of the wicked. verse 16. Worthington.
Verse 11. Away. Like Henoch. Genesis 5:24. Hebrews 11:5. Calmet.—“Bad conversations corrupt the best manners.” 1 Corinthians 15:33. Isaiah 57:1. But could not God have supported the just under temptation? Undoubtedly. His judgments are unsearchable. Saint Augustine de Præd. xiv. Calmet.—The holy doctor thence proves, that those who die in a just state, might have forfeited it, if they had lived longer. God knew this possibility, and that it would not take place, and his foreknowledge agrees with man’s free-will, which some, inclining to Pelagianism, would controvert. They objected to this authority: and he was therefore obliged to prove that the book of Wisdom is canonical. Ib. Worthington.
Verse 12. Bewitching. Thus the pleasures and goods of the world are well described. For as fascination consists in a delusion of the people, who suppose that their senses are deceived by vain appearances; so it is the mistake of worldlings to believe that the objects of their desires are real goods, and contain no danger.
Verse 19. Speechless. The damned shall have no excuse, being condemned by their own conscience, ( Worthington.) which shall be instead of a thousand witnesses. Menochius.—In three words, three different punishments are specified.
Verse 20. Against. Conscience will condemn or acquit those who have no other law. Romans 2:15. Calmet.