For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Ver. 29. For no man ever hated] No man but a monk, who whips himself, or a mad man, Mark 5:5, who cuts himself. It was the saying of the Emperor Aurelius, a wife is to be often admonished, sometimes reproved, but never beaten. And yet of the Russian women it is reported, that they love that husband best that beats them most, and that they think themselves else not regarded, unless two or three times a day well favouredly swadled. Chrysostom saith, It is the greatest reproach in the world for a man to beat his wife.
But nourisheth it, and cherisheth it] Θαλπει. As the hen doth her chickens, or as the cock pigeon doth the eggs. a Contrariwise the magpie hunts away from his mate about autumn, lest he should be forced to keep her all the winter; and so becometh the hieroglyphic of an unkind husband.
Even as the Lord, the Church] Lo, this is the pattern of all true love, whether to ourselves or others.
a Columbarum masculus ipse ovis incubat.