Verse 17. For he will crush me in a whirlwind. 31. Every sinner is worn down in the whirlwind who seemed upright in tranquility, because him whom the supernal long-suffering long tolerates, the extreme severity of judgment slays; which is rightly called a whirlwind, because it is revealed in the commotion of the elements, the Psalmist bearing witness, who says: God shall come manifest, our God, and shall not keep silence. Fire shall burn in his sight, and round about him a mighty tempest (Psalm 50:3). Whence also another prophet says: The Lord's way is in the tempest and the whirlwind (Nahum 1:3). In which whirlwind the just man is doubtless by no means crushed, because he here always anxiously fears lest he be crushed.
For he weighs well, while yet set on the journey of the present life, how strict an exactor of works upon human deeds he appears who condemns certain ones, then bound by the guilt of original sin, even without works. Whence rightly the holy man, from the voice of the human race, straightway adds: