For oftentimes also thine own heart knoweth that thou thyself likewise hast cursed others.
Ver. 22. For oftentimes also thine own heart knows.] Conscience is God's spy, and man's overseer; and though some can make a sorry shift to muzzle her for a time, or to stop their own ears, yet ipsa se offert, ipsa se ingerit, saith Bernard; sooner or later she will tell a man his own to some tune, as they say; she will not go behind the door to let him know that he himself likewise hath cursed others, as now by God's just judgment others curse him. The conscience of our own evil doings, though hid from the world, should meeken us toward those that do amiss. See Titus 3:3. Say to yourselves, -
“ Aut sumus, aut fuimus, aut possumus esse quod hic est. ”
Either we are, or will be, or we are able to be what this is. The wrong that David had done to Uriah helped him to bear the barkings of that dead dog Shimei. Here, then, "Take no heed unto all words," &c., as in the former verse. For, nihil amarius quam id ipsum pati quod feceris, a there is nothing more bitter than to suffer that which thou hast done to others; because those sufferings sting the conscience with unquestionable conviction and horror, as is to be seen in Adonibezek, who acknowledged with a regret, a just remuneration. Jdg 1:7
a Tertul.