Don’t deprive yourself of a wise and good wife, for her grace is worth more than gold.
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 19. On the flesh, is not in Greek. Christ appears to have had this passage in view, Mark 9:44. Many suppose that both allude to the fire which burnt dead bodies, and so forth in the vale of Hinnon. But all allow that the inextinguishable flames of hell are meant. Whether the fire and worms be corporeal or not has been questioned: the Greek Fathers, and the Church of Florence, generally maintain the negative, and the Latins assert it on better grounds. Saint Thomas adopts the opinion of many of the Fathers, who explain the worm to denote the remorse of conscience. Yet many take it to be a worm, though not like those with which we are acquainted. Horreo vermem mendacem et mortem vivacem. Saint Bernard cons. v. See Saint Jerome Is. lxvi. A. Lap. Saint Gregory Dial. iv. 29. Saint Augustine De Calmet. xx. 10. Saint Ambrose vii. in Lu. xiv. Calmet.—Fire and the worm of conscience are both eternal. Worthington.—The punishment at least is such, and more intense than we can conceive.