John Chrysostom, on 2Sam 15:3

“And Absalom answered him: Thy words seem to me good and just. But there is no man appointed by the king to hear thee. And Absalom said:”

“For nothing is so necessary for the proper conduct of affairs as prudence; and there is no greater hindrance to prudence than wickedness and malice and hollowness. Look at people suffering from a liver ailment. How unsightly they are, with all their bloom withered away. How weak they are, and puny, and unfit for anything. So also are souls of this nature. What else is wickedness but a jaundice of the soul? Wickedness then has no strength in it. Indeed, it has none whatever. Will you mind that I again make what I am saying plain to you … by setting before you the portraits of a treacherous and a guileless man? Absalom was a treacherous man and "stole all the people's hearts." And observe how great was his treachery. "He went about," it says, "and said, 'Have you no justice?' " wishing to conciliate every one to himself. But David was guileless. What then? Look at the end of them both, look, how full of utter madness was the former! For inasmuch as he looked solely to the hurt of his father, in all other things he was blinded.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.