Verse 16
16 These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words , having men’s persons in admiration because of advantage.
Ver. 16. These are murmurers ] Ut porci saginati, saith Aretius, as boars in a frank, they grunt against God’s ways and worshippers, like so many Caii Grunnii Corocottae.
Complainers ] Invalidum omne natura querulum, saith Seneca. Weak ones are never without their ailments.
After their own lusts ] So many lusts, so many lords.
Great swelling words ] Bubbles of words. See the note on 2 Peter 2:18 . The Syriac renders it, stupendous stuff. They amaze their hearers with sesquipedalian a words, and sublime businesses, big swollen fancies, &c.; they tell them they shall hear that which they never heard before, and therefore call upon them to mark; whereas the thing is either false, or if true, no more than ordinarily is taught by others: with as much confidence as ignorance they counsel the simple by portentous words and phrases abhorrent from Christian religion, truth, and sobriety; and which wise men lament while fools applaud and admire.
Having men’s persons ] Licking up their spittle, as it were, and loading the mouse with the elephant’s praises. Ungunt pariter et emungunt.
a Of words and expressions (after Horace’s sesquipedalia verba ‘words a foot and a half long’, A.P. 97): Of many syllables. Ten dollar words! ŒD
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