The eye [that] mocketh at [his] father, and despiseth to obey [his] mother, the ravens of the valley shall pick it out, and the young eagles shall eat it.
Ver. 17. The eye that mocketh at his father.] As Ham did at Noah. "And despiseth to obey his mother," or ‘Despiseth the wrinkles of his mother,' as some read it; that looks upon her with disdain, as an old withered fool.
The ravens of the valley shall pick it out.] God takes notice of the offending member, and appoints punishments for it. By the law such a child was to be put to death, and here is set down what kind of death - hanging upon a tree, which the Greeks also call a being cast, εις κορακας, to the crows or ravens. Thus the Scripture is both text and gloss; one place opens another; the prophets explain the law; they unfold and draw out that arras a that was folded together before. The ravens of the valleys or brooks are said to be most ravenous; b and the young eagles or vultures smell out carcases, and the first thing they do to them is to pick out their eyes: Effossos oculos voret atro gutture corvus. They are cursed with a witness whom the Holy Ghost thus curseth in such emphatic manner, in such exquisite terms. c Let wicked children look to it, and know that vultu saepe laeditur pietas, as the very heathens observed; that a proud or paltry look cast upon a parent is a breach of piety punishable with death, yea, with a shameful and ignominious death. Let them also think of those infernal ravens and vultures, &c.
a Earnest money, a part of the purchase money given to ratify a contract; fig. a pledge.
b Corvi fluviatiles.
c Willet on Levit.