He brought lions upon them—not dragons, not the other great beasts, but gnats and dog-flies, upon frog and…

He brought lions upon them—not dragons, not the other great beasts, but gnats and dog-flies, upon frog and locust.

[...]

What is 'he drowned'?—but there he does not say:

'I have mocked them' (Ex 10:2).

'The sinners drew the sword and bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy' (Psalm 37:14; LXX 36:14).

They prepared a sword, that they might cast down the poor and needy.

It is turned back and comes into their own heart, as it is said:

'he who digs a pit for his neighbor shall fall into it' (Prov 26:27).

And again:

'and let the trap which they hid catch them' (Psalm 35:8; LXX 34:8).

And in Ecclesiastes he says:

'him who destroys a hedge, a serpent shall bite' (Eccl 10:8).

A serpent shall bite the one destroying another's hedge, destroying another's security.

'They drew the sword';

they drew it from the sheath into the open [...].

The sword can be the word with guile;

for they draw it, that through it they may strike.

You have it said in Proverbs:

'there are those who, speaking, wound as with a sword, but the tongues of the wise heal' (Prov 12:18).

There are those who in speaking wound as with a sword.

But it is to be read with the dative:

there are those who in speaking wound with a sword.

Those who corrupt good manners with evil conversations (1 Cor 15:33) wound with a sword in speaking.

'and their tongue is a sharp sword';

their word, like a sword, harms and wounds.

In speaking, then, there are some who wound with a sword; but the tongues of the wise, the words of the wise, heal.

These swords are of medicine; they do not wound, do not strike, do not traumatize, but heal the wounds made by other words.

A bow being bent is the ruling faculty thus prepared so that arrows are loosed from it.

And let these be evil reasonings, harmful words.

'behold, the sinners bent the bow, they prepared arrows for the quiver'.

'to slay the upright in heart' (Psalm 37:14; LXX 36:14).

Here we hear 'upright in heart' as the righteous one being reproved, and the wise, and the righteous one accusing himself.

In the Gospel it is written in the person of the Lord that:

'all who take the sword shall perish by the sword' (Matt 26:52).

And the many think that this says that everyone who slays a man shall be slain.

But this does not appear incontrovertible;

many murderers have met their own end;

but this is what it says:

everyone who brings punishment upon someone shall fall under punishment; everyone wishing to harm someone with a sword—with his own sharpened mind, or tongue and word—shall fall under the same things.

[...]

'to cast down the poor and needy' (Psalm 37:14; LXX 36:14)?—they cannot cast down the rich; they cannot cast down the one having the 'in all knowledge and all word' (1 Cor 1:5) wealth, but the [...].