Fathers

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What the Fathers say

1 Samuel 15:5

Western Saints

Gregory the Dialogist

What is this torrent, if not that of which it is said through the Psalmist: "He shall drink of the torrent in the way" (Psalm 109:7)? For a torrent designates the course of our mortality. Saul therefore sets an ambush in the torrent, when a preacher of the Church inserts the consideration of our mortality into the eternal rewards. …

Commentary on 1 Kings, Book 6, Chapter 1 ↗

Bede

And when Saul had come to the city of Amalek, etc. The city of Amalek represents the densely packed array of temptations against the faithful, which now rages at us, stirred up either by demons, humans, or by our own desires. Certainly, near this city of tempting vices is a flooding torrent, that is, the turbulent drive of fluctuating thoughts, which, descending from the mountains of demonic pride, crashes against the walls of depravity more severely the more the winter of persecution exacerbates the favorable year of the Lord. …

Commentary on Samuel ↗