Ps 57:3

“Though it appears that the serpent's nature is being delineated in the foregoing, rather, every vessel of evil is being delineated, and every serpent of depravity who casts himself down on the belly and hides his poison inside himself and ponders it inwardly in his breast. He25 is slippery in his thoughts, he advances in his deceits and wraps himself in his deceptions; he is always moving and stirring his poisons by thought and treading on his belly as well, that is, the seedbed of his heart. For this reason, David fittingly says, "Sinners are alienated from the womb; they have gone astray from the womb; they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, that will not hear the voice of the charmers or of the wizard that are invoked by the wise person." For this reason, the statement that we read in the prophetic book also seems fitting, "My heart, my heart is in pain!" For wickedness exists there, where there ought to be guiltlessness; what should be more calm in us experiences the greater suffering. It is trodden down by the footsteps of evil, pricked by its claws and agitated by a kind of advance and increase of depravity where there exists the procreative seed of an everlasting posterity.”

“Atticus: I grant you that they are just men, but I cannot agree with you at all that they are without sin. For I say that humanity can be without fault, which in Greek is called kakia ["wickedness"], but I deny that it is anamartētos ["faultless"], that is to say sine peccato ["without sin"]. For this is a virtue that befits God alone; and every creature is subject to sin and stands in need of the mercy of God, as Scripture says: "The earth is full of the mercy of the Lord." And lest I seem to be discussing certain little faults, so to speak, of the saints, into which they slipped through error, I shall produce a few testimonies that refer not to individuals but rather to all people in general. In the thirty-first psalm, it is written, "I said I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you have forgiven the wickedness of my heart." And it continues immediately, "For this" (that is to say, for this impiety or iniquity, for both words can be understood in this passage) "shall everyone that is holy pray to you in a seasonable time." If one is holy, what is his reason for praying for forgiveness of his iniquity? If one has iniquity, in what sense is he called holy? In the sense, to be sure, that it is also written in another place: "A just person shall fall seven times and shall rise again." And, "The just is accuser of himself in the beginning of his speech." And in another place: "The wicked are alienated from the womb, they have gone astray from the womb, they have spoken false things." They became sinful at the very moment they were born in the likeness of Adam's sin, who was a figure of the one who was to come, or at the moment when Christ was born of a virgin. It has been written about him: "Every one who opens the womb shall be called holy to the Lord."”

“Therefore, having been taught by these examples, I did not want to bite back at him who bites back at me or to retaliate in kind; and I chose rather to charm out the fury of a madman by incantation and to pour the antidote of a single look into a poisoned heart. But I am afraid that my efforts are in vain and that I shall be forced to sing the well-known song of David and console myself with these words: "The sinners are alienated from the assembly; they have gone astray from the womb; they have spoken false things. Their madness is according to the likeness of a serpent, like the deaf asp that stops its ears, which will not hear the voice of the charmers nor of the wizard that charms wisely. God shall break in pieces their teeth in their mouths; the Lord shall break the teeth of the lions. They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he has bent his bow until they are weakened. Like wax that melts, they shall be taken away: fire has fallen on them, and they have not seen the sun." And again: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the revenge of the wicked; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner." And people shall say, "If, indeed, there is a reward to the just, there is, indeed, a God who judges them on the earth."”

“"Alienated are sinners from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things" [Psalm 58:3]. And when iniquity they speak, false things they speak; because deceitful is iniquity: and when justice they speak, false things they speak; because one thing with mouth they profess, another thing in heart they conceal. "Alienated are sinners from the womb." What is this? Let us search more diligently: for perhaps he is saying this, because God has foreknown men that are to be sinners even in the wombs of their mothers. For whence when Rebecca was yet pregnant, and in womb was bearing twins, was it said, "Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated"? For it was said, "The elder shall serve the younger." Hidden at that time was the judgment of God: but yet from the womb, that is, from the very origin, alienated are sinners. Whence alienated? From truth. Whence alienated? From the blessed country, from the blessed life. Perchance alienated they are from the very womb. And what sinners have been alienated from the womb? For what men would have been born, if therein they had not been held? Or what men today would be alive to hear these words to no purpose, unless they were born? Perchance therefore sinners have been alienated from a certain womb, wherein that charity was suffering pains, which speaks through the Apostle, "Of whom again I am in labour, until Christ be formed in you." [Galatians 4:19] Expect thou therefore; be formed: do not to yourself ascribe a judgment which perchance you know not. Carnal you are as yet, conceived you have been: from that very time when you have received the name of Christ, by a sort of sacrament you have been born in the bowels of a mother. For not only out of bowels a man is born, but also in bowels. First he is born in bowels, in order that he may be able to be born of bowels. Wherefore it has been said even to Mary, "For that which is born in you, is of the Holy Spirit." Not yet of Her It had been born, but already in Her It had been born. Therefore there are born within the bowels of the Church certain little ones, and a good thing it is that being formed they should go forth, so that they drop not by miscarriage. Let the mother bear you, not miscarry. If patient you shall have been, even until you be formed, even until in you there be the sure doctrine of truth, the maternal bowels ought to keep you. But if by your impatience you shall have shaken the sides of your mother, with pain indeed she expels you out, but more to your loss than to hers.”

“Even in your heart, you plot injustice And not only that, but in your heart you plot evil, to do injustice. injustice lit. wrongs, like עַוָלוֹת as one says from שוֹר, שורים, and from עיר, עירים (Jud. 10: 4): “and they had thirty cities (עירים),” which is an expression of עיר, a city. in the earth, you weigh down the violence of your hands Inside the earth, you weigh down the violence of your hands until it is very heavy. תְפַלֵּסוּן is contrepesez or contrepezeres in Old French, you outweigh. (See Isa. 26:7.)”