Because he covereth his face with his fatness, and maketh collops of fat on [his] flanks.
Ver. 27. Because he covereth his face with his fatness] This is given in as one chief cause of his insolence; he is a belly god, he maketh plaits upon the paunch, so Broughton rendereth it; he hath fattened his guts, so Calvin; he maketh it his business to pamper his body; his heart also is as fat as grease, Psalms 119:70. Bene curavit cutem suam in hoc mundo He takes good care of his skin in this world. (Vat.). He is waxen fat, that is, prosperity proud, and kicketh, Deuteronomy 32:15. Pride and fulness of bread were Sodom's twin sins, Ezekiel 16:49. When people are provender pricked, as we call it, they easily turn the grace of God into lasciviousness, Judges 1:4, and that fulness breeds forgetfulness; as the fed hawk soon forgets his master, and the moon at fullest gets farthest off the sun. Sensualists who love feasts, Judges 5:10, are void of the Spirit, Judges 1:19. A full belly maketh a foul heart. The rankest weeds grow out of the fattest soil; and those that make their gut a gulf, well, they may have collops in their flanks, but they have leanness in their souls; indeed, they have (as swine) their souls for salt only, to keep their bodies from putrefying.
And maketh collops of fat on his flanks] Heb. And maketh mouths, that is, wrinkles, upon his flanks. He is active about it, and makes it his business to make provision for the flesh, Romans 13:14. He labours "for the meat that perisheth," John 6:27. He lives to eat, and laughs himself fat, till his heart, now hardened for the deceitfulness of his sin, becomes as insensible as Dionysius', the Heracleot, who felt not when men thrust needles into his fat belly; or those bears in Pliny, that could not be stirred with the sharpest prickles.