28.—He shall dwell in desolate cities, and in deserted houses, which have been reduced to heaps. 52. He in turn, while he is exalted by the praises of those joined to him, is more vehemently carried off to depraved works.—For since a city is named from the intercourse of those who dwell together, the desolate cities are the very bands of perverse followers, by whose clamours this perverse man is praised while through wickedness he is carried off to depraved works. Whence it is written: The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does unjust things is blessed (Ps. x, 3, according to the Hebrew). But the deserted houses are the depraved thoughts which this wicked man inhabits, because through everything that he does he seeks to please the thoughts of wicked men.
These are rightly named desolate cities and deserted houses, because unless Almighty God, on account of their preceding faults, abandoned the conversations and thoughts of such men, they would by no means arrive at the perpetration of graver deeds. Well, moreover, is it said: Which have been reduced to heaps. For the falling buildings of houses and cities make heaps, since when the depraved by confused actions join themselves to one another for perverse works, they show beyond doubt that they have fallen from the edifice of life. There follows: