12 These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;



Ver. 12. These are spots] Or rocks, or muddy holes, that harpy-like {a} not only devour, but defile all that they touch, óðéëáäåò, ðáñá ôï óðáí ôçí åëçí , a trahendo lutum.



In your feasts of charity] See these described by Tertullian (Advers. Genres, c. 39).



When they feast with you] Thrusting themselves into your company, whether invited or not; sin having wended an impudence in their faces.



Feeding themselves] As fatted cattle fitted for the slaughter.



Without fear] Of being ensnared by the creatures, Pro_23:2.



Clouds they are] Light, and constant only in their inconstancy. The philosopher saith, Insalubre admodum caelum est quod pluviam promittit non, demittit, That is an unwholesome air that promiseth rain, but performs it not. It is ill conversing with these waterless clouds.



Twice dead] Killed with death, Rev_2:23. Such as for whom hell gapeth.



Plucked up by the root] Trees that are not for fruit are for the fire.



{a} Gr. and Lat. Myth. A fabulous monster, rapacious and filthy, having a woman’s face and body and a bird’s wings and claws, and supposed to act as a minister of divine vengeance. ŒD