Verse 20. — 'From morning until evening they shall be cut down.' 70. The reprobate do not change their perverse mind even at the last hour. — From morning until evening the sinner is cut down, while from the beginning of his life even to its end he is wounded by the committing of iniquity. For at all times the reprobate, through the increase of malice, redouble against themselves the blows by which, cut down, they may fall into the depths. Of whom it is well said through the Psalmist: 'Men of blood and deceit shall not live out half their days' (Ps. liv, 25). For to halve one's days is to divide the time of life ill spent in pleasures unto the laments of penitence, and by apportioning this to a good use, to repair it.
But the wicked by no means halve their days, because they change not their perverse mind even at the last hour. Against which Paul well admonishes, saying: 'Redeeming the time, because the days are evil' (Eph. v, 16). For we redeem the time when we repair by weeping the life that went before, which we lost by wantonness. There follows: