He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
Ver. 51. He hath showed strength, &c.] It appears by the whole frame of this holy song, that the blessed Virgin was well versed in the Scripture, which she here makes so much use of in sundry passages. She was eruditionis pietatis et modestiae delicium, as one speaketh of the Lady Jane Grey. She had by much reading made her bosom Bibliothecam Christi, Christ's library, as a Father saith; and may seem to have been exercised in the good word of God from her infancy, as 2 Timothy 3:15, and as that sweet young gentlewoman, Mrs Elizabeth Wheatenhall, daughter of Mr Anthony Wheatenhall, of Tenterden, in Kent, deceased, who not yet being ten years old when she died, yea, before she was nine years old (not much above eight), could say all the New Testament by heart, and being asked where any words were, she would presently name book, chapter, and verse. One Mr Stoughton, a minister, writeth this upon his own knowledge and examination of her.
He hath scattered the proud] He by his strong arm hath so splitted them, that they shiver into pieces, διεσκορπισε; or hath made them as darts, which, being among the enemies, are lost; or hath hurled them hither and thither, as the wind doth the dust of the mountains.