For thou shalt be in league with the stones of the field: and the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee.
Ver. 23. For thou shall be in league with the stones of the field] Thou shall not dash thy foot against them (the Latins call a stone lapidem a laedendo pede, from hurting the foot that hitteth against them, Psalms 91:1,2 .) They were wont of old to go barefoot (as Vatablus here noteth). And our chronicler telleth us of King Henry II, that, for a penance, going to Canterbury to the shrine of Thomas Becket, his bare feet with the hard stones were forced to yield bloody tokens of his devotion on the way. Or thus, the stones of the field shall not hinder thy harvest, as Matthew 13:6. Or being piled up for a mound, or wall, they shall not fall upon thee, and brain thee, as the stones of the wall of Aphek did the blasphemous Syrians, 1 Kings 20:33; as the town house did the insulting Philistines, Judges 16:30; as the house did Job's children, &c.; or, the stones out of the wall shall not cry out against thee, as Habakkuk 2:11, but all creatures shall be thy confederates; not only not hurting, but helping thee, all that may be. For as they are all armed against the wicked as rebels and traitors to the Divine majesty; so God hath promised to make a covenant for his saints with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, &c., Rebellis facta est; quia homo numini, creatura homini (Aug.), Hosea 2:18. See Trapp on " Hos 2:18 "
And the beasts of the field shall be at peace with thee] The tame beasts shall not only not mischieve thee (as some they have done: Euripides the poet was torn in pieces with dogs; horses have been the death of many, &c.), but shall be serviceable and profitable unto thee; some alive, not dead, as the dog, horse; some dead, not alive, as the hog; some both, as the ox, sheep, &c. Ambrose hath a very strange story of a man slain at Antioch by night, by a soldier, in hope of spoil; this man's dog would not leave his master's dead corpse, but lay howling by it till daylight; many came in the morning to see that sad sight, and the murderer among the rest came, that he might be the less suspected. The dog no sooner saw this soldier but he ran fiercely at him, and would never stop barking and baiting at him till he saw him apprehended and carried to prison, where he confessed the fact and was for the same deservedly executed (Amb. in Hexaem.).