Gird up now thy loins like a man; for I will demand of thee, and answer thou me.
Ver. 3. Gird up now thy loins like a man] As men did use to do when they went to fight, 1 Kings 20:11. Stand to thy ward, and see to thyself; for I mean to assail thee and to try thy manhood. Plato hath observed, that the best fencers are the worst soldiers. Many can brave it beforehand, as that Thrasonical Gaal did, Judges 9:29, who yet cannot look their enemy in the face with blood in their cheeks.
For I will demand of thee, and answer thou me] I will be thy opponent, since thou hast challenged me into the schools, as it were, and given me my choice, and prove thee with hard questions; whereunto if thou canst give no good answer, see thine own folly, and be satisfied.