Genesis 49:18

I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

Ver. 18. I have waited for thy salvation.] A sudden and sweet ejaculation; either, as, feeling himself faint and spent with speaking, he desires to be dissolved, and so to be freed from all infirmities; or else, foreseeing the defection of this tribe to idolatry, and their many miseries thereupon, he darts up this holy desire to God for them, and himself in them. Good Nehemiah is much in these heavenly ejaculation: and the ancient Christians of Egypt were wont to use very short and frequent prayers, saith Augustine; a lest, in longer, their fervour of affection should suffer diminution. "Why criest thou unto me?" saith God to Moses. Exo 14:15 This was but a sudden desire darted up.

a Ne per moras evanesceret et hebetaretur oratio. - Aug.