But as for the bile, it is good to anoint a man that has white films in his eyes, and he will be healed.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 8. Its heart, and so forth The liver, (verse 19.) God was pleased to give to these things a virtue against those proud spirits, to make them, who affected to be like the Most High, subject to such mean corporeal creatures, as instruments of his power. Challoner.—God sometimes makes use of things as remedies which have, naturally, a different effect; as when Christ put clay on the eyes of the blind man. John 9. The things which the angel ordered were salutary, by God’s appointment. Worthington.—They could not act directly upon a spirit: but they might upon the person troubled by one, as Saul was relieved by music. Calmet. Diss.—The smoke was a sign of the devil’s expulsion, and of the efficacy of prayer; or rather, God subjected the proud spirits to such weak elements. Serar. q. 3. Menochius.—Greek “and he said to him, respecting the heart and liver, if any demon or wicked spirit be troublesome, make these smoke before a man or a woman, and the person shall be troubled no longer.