Athanasius of Alexandria : The Jews in their imaginings, and in their agreeing to act unjustly against the Lord, forgot that they were bringing wrath upon themselves. Therefore does the Word lament for them saying, "Why do the people exalt themselves, and the nations imagine vain things?" For vain indeed was the imagination of the Jews, meditating death against the Life, and devising unreasonable things against the Word of the Father. For who that looks upon their dispersion, and the desolation of their city, may not aptly say, "Woe unto them, for they have imagined an evil imagination, saying against their own soul, let us bind the righteous man, because he is not pleasing to us." And full well it is so, my brethren; for when they erred concerning the Scriptures, they knew not that "he who digs a pit for his neighbor falls into it; and he who destroys a hedge, a serpent shall bite him." And if they had not turned their faces from the Lord, they would have feared what was written before in the divine Psalms: "The heathen are caught in the pit which they made; in the snare which they hid is their own foot taken. The Lord is known when executing judgments: by the works of his hands is the sinner taken." — FESTAL LETTERS 11:5 Augustine of Hippo : Scripture says that there are deep things that must not under any circumstances be looked into, and the one who searches in a hedge will be bitten by a snake. — LETTER 12:10 Jerome : "He who digs a pit will fall into it, and he who breaks down a wall will be bitten by a snake. "This is partly unambiguous and partly to be understood in a more complicated way. Since elsewhere Solomon also says, "he that sets a trap will be caught in it" [Eccli. 27, 29.]. And in the seventh Psalm: "he laid out a pond and dug it out, and then he fell into the hole he had made" [Ps. 7, 16.]. But the wall and the fence as well are the doctrines of the Church, and the institution set up by the apostles and prophets. And whoever knocks them down or wants them to come to an end is bitten by a snake where he is not looking. Amos writes about this snake: "if he goes down into the underworld, I will order a snake to kill him" [Am. 9, 3.]. — Commentary on Ecclesiastes Vincent of Lérins : Once they begin not only to use the divine expressions but also to explain them, not only to present them but also to interpret them, then people will realize how bitter, how sharp, how fierce they are. Then will the poisonous breath of their new ideas be exhaled, then will profane novelties appear in the open, then will you see that "the hedge is broken," that the ancient bounds have been passed, that the dogma of the church is lacerated, that the Catholic faith is harmed. — COMMONITORIES 25