Cassiodorus : Vanity is the general term for vices, but vain in the particular sense means that which is found alien to God. Just as trusting in the Godhead is fruitful constancy, so deviating from him is the vanity that perishes.… So those who burned with the most base love of idols are convicted, and the phrase is to be pronounced as a rebuke, as if the words were, "Why do you love the vanity by which you perish?" We ought to love things that are beneficial, not harmful, for it is better to curse the things that cause the punishment of lasting damnation to afflict us. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 4:3 Jerome : (Verse 7) Because they were once filled, and they had augurs, like the Philistines. For the Philistines always interpreted seventy foreign guests as their own, a common name for a particular people, which is today the nation of the Palestinians, as if they were Philistines, because the Hebrew language does not have the letter P; but instead uses the Greek letter Phi. Therefore, what is said in the Psalms, with the enumeration of other nations: "Foreigners have submitted to me" (Psalms 59:10), does not mean all foreign nations, but specifically the Palestinians. And the reasons why God expelled his people, the house of Jacob, from Reddit are as follows: because, as he says, they were full, just as they were in the beginning, of soothsayers, and omens, and all the filth of idolatry. We know, from Moses' writing, that we should not pay attention to omens or auguries, which the nations that the Lord expelled from the presence of Israel, the Canaanites, the Amorites, and the Hittites, practiced. The interpreters of the Church have interpreted this passage differently, one from another. What does this want to signify? That, after the population of the Jews was expelled, the Roman army entered the land once promised; and after the Jews were driven out, foreign peoples inhabited Judea, who were immigrants from different nations all over the world, brought by Titus, Vespasian, Hadrian, and other leaders. However, others think that this does not pertain to Roman times, but to earlier times, before they were devastated by the Babylonians, as they are said to have been under impious kings and were abandoned by the Lord. And they befriended foreign boys. For which reason, seventy were transferred: And many children of foreigners were born to them. Symmachus: And they applauded with foreign children. For which reason, it is written in Hebrew, 'they adhaeserunt', which the Hebrews interpret as ἐσφηνώθησαν, and we translate as 'they befriended', in order to display the shamefulness of vices in the Jewish nation. In fact, the Greeks and Romans were once afflicted by this vice, so much so that even the most renowned philosophers of Greece openly had lovers: and Adrian, skilled in the arts of philosophy, consecrated Antinous as a god, and established a temple for him, along with sacrifices and priests, and from him the city and region of Egypt received its name. Also, among the prostitutes in the brothels, boys stood exposed to public lust: until under the emperor Constantine, the shining Gospel of Christ, and the infidelity of all nations, and this wickedness was abolished. Moreover, the fact that their wives were violated by the Jews is indicated by the number seventy, which signifies the production of alien children. Symmachus, in a certain oration, with an honorable discourse, demonstrated the same abomination with boys. — Commentary on Isaiah John Chrysostom : Someone might ask, what is wrong with having silver or horses, particularly when what the people believed was not rigorous? How should we respond? The prophet was not criticizing the use of these possessions but the misuse of them. When he said, "Woe to the mighty," he was not condemning them for having possessions but for hoarding so much more than they needed. — COMMENTARY ON Isaiah 2:7