Provérbios 30
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Provérbios 30:19
Neither against the rock on which Christ builds the church nor against the church will the gates of hades prevail; just as the way of a serpent upon a rock, according to what is written in the Proverbs, cannot be found. Now, if the gates of hades prevail against any one, such cannot be a rock upon which Christ builds the church. — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 12:11
Provérbios 30:20
I will describe two persons who have sinned the same abominable sin of fornication, yet between these two who have fornicated, the one is not aggrieved nor feels pain nor is vexed but experiences what was said in Proverbs concerning the adulterous woman "who having washed herself, if she does something, says she has done nothing wrong." See with me the other who after the mistake is unable to contain himself but punishes the conscience, tortures the heart, is unable to eat and drink, who fasts not because of a judgment but because of grief of repentance. I will describe him as the kind of person who "appears sad all day long" and who wears himself down with suffering and who goes "wailing from the groaning of his heart," who sees his sin reproved before himself on account of all which happened before. And see that this sort of person punishes himself not only for one day nor one night but for a long time. Who do you say has hope before God? Is it that first person who has fornicated and does not care but is callous and also has hardened himself just as one who has "given himself up to licentiousness"? Or is it this latter person who after one sin goes into mourning, lamenting it?This latter [has some grounds for hope]. The more such a one is burnt by the fire of grief, the more he is shown mercy, and there is for him such sufficient time for punishment, as there is a time of punishment given to that person who fornicated and was grieved. — HOMILIES ON JEREMIAH 20:9.1-2
Provérbios 30:24-28
I do not quote these words, however, as taking them in their literal signification, but, agreeably to the title of the book (for it is entitled "Proverbs"), I investigate them as containing a secret meaning. For it is the custom of these writers [of Scripture] to distribute into many classes those writings which express one sense when taken literally but which convey a different signification as their hidden meaning; and one of these kinds of writing is "Proverbs." … It is not, then, the visible ants which are "wiser even than the wise," but they who are indicated as such under the "proverbial" style of expression. And such must be our conclusion regarding the rest of the animal creation. — AGAINST CELSUS 4:87
Provérbios 30:27
Although the locusts do not have a king, as Scripture says, "He marches the well-ordered army in one line," but people, although they have been made rational by God, have been able neither to rule themselves orderly nor to endure patiently the control of God as king. — HOMILIES ON EXODUS 4:7