Now the words of the Psalm that come next are, For trouble is at hand; for there is none that helpeth me. Many calves surrounded me, fat bulls compassed me about; they opened their mouth upon me like a lion seizing (its prey) and roaring; all my bones were poured out like water, and were scattered. These were likewise a prediction of what happened to- Him. For on that night when the men of your people who were sent by the Pharisees and scribes, as their teaching bade them do, came upon Him from the Mount of Olives, they surrounded Him, and therefore were called by the word calves, creatures with horns and prematurely destructive.
And the phrase, Fat bulls compassed me about, foretold those very persons who acted like the calves, when He was brought unto your teachers. And these the word called bulls, because we know that the bulls are the cause of there being calves. As then the bulls are the fathers of the calves, so your teachers, were the cause that their children went out into the Mount of Olives, and took and brought Him to them. And the phrase, For there is none to help, also declares what took place. For there was no helper, no, not a single man, to help Him as one who was sinless.
And They opened their mouth against me, as a lion roaring, means the king of the Jews at that time, himself called Herod, successor of that Herod who, when He was born, slew all the boys that were born in Bethlehem at that time, because he imagined that He of whom the Wise Men from Arabia had told him would certainly be among them. For he knew not the purpose of Him who is stronger than all, that He had commanded Joseph and Mary to take the Child and depart into Egypt, and be there until it should be revealed to them again that they should return into their own country. And there they went, and stayed until the death of Herod who slew the children in Bethlehem, and Archelaus succeeded him. And he too died before Christ came to the Dispensation wrought by Him in accordance with the will of the Father in being crucified.
Now Herod succeeded Archelaus, and received the authority that was allotted him, to whom Pilate also showed the favour of sending Jesus bound, and this also God had known would happen, and foretold in these words, And they bound and carried him off into Assyria as a present to the king.
Or he said, A lion that is roaring, of the devil himself; whom Moses indeed calls a serpent, but he is called devil in Job and Zechariah, and is addressed as Satanas by Jesus, signifying that he had obtained a name made up from the action he performed. For sata in the language of Jews and Syrians is ‘apostate,’ and nas is a name from which the interpretation of ‘serpent’ is taken. So from "both expressions comes the one name satanas.
Moreover this devil — at the very moment that He ascended from the river Jordan, when the utterance had been spoken to Him, Thou art My Son, to-day have I begotten Thee — is recorded in the Memoirs of the Apostles as coming up to Him and tempting Him, even &so far as to say to Him, Worship me, and Christ answered him, Get behind Me, Satanas; the Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and Him alone shalt thou serve. For as he led Adam astray, he thought that he could do some harm to Him also.
Again the phrase: all my bones were poured out like water and were scattered, my heart became like melting wax in the midst of my belly, was a prediction of what happened to Him that night when they came out against Him into the mount of Olives to take Him.
For in the Memoirs, which I say were composed by His apostles and them that followed them, it is written that sweat flowed down like clots Luke 22:44 while He was praying, and saying, Let this cup pass away, if it be possible, His heart plainly being a-tremble, and His bones likewise, and His heart being like wax melting into His belly. From this you may know that the Father has willed that His own Son should in reality be in such suffering for our sake, and that we cannot say that, being God’s Son, He had no share in what was done, and in what happened, to Him.
And the phrase, My might was dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat, was, as I said before, a prediction of His silence, He who rebuked all your teachers as lacking wisdom giving no answer at all.