Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

Ver. 16. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial.] That is, Of the devil, as all drunkards are confessedly. Behemoth lieth in the fens, Job 40:21 which Gul. Parisiensis applieth to the devil dwelling in drunken hearts. See Luke 11:24. Oh that our carousers were persuaded, as Mohammed told his followers, that in every grape there dwelt a devil!

For out of the abundance of my complaint and grief.] Not of wine, or any other inebriating liquor, whereof the Italians, besides wine, have many sorts: the most delicious they blasphemously call Lachrymae Christi. If Hannah were drunk at all, it was with her own tears, which she, poor soul, had drunk in great abundance.

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