Hieronym. in Abac. iii. 5.RESEPH. This Word is found in the Hebrew1 of Habakkuk iii. 5. where the Vulgate translates it, Egredietur Diabolus antes pedes ejus. And the Septuagint ; Egredietur in campos post pedes ejus. Aquila has translated Reseph by Volatile : Symmachus, Theodotion, and the fifth Edition, by Volucre a Bird, a flying Thing. It may very well be render’d ; Burning Coals shall walk before him2 ; and be explain’d by the Fire of the Wrath of God, or by the Distempers with which he afflicts his Enemies ; or by the Carbo, which is a kind of Pestilence. St. Jerom, from the Tradition of the Hebrews, says, that Reseph is a Demon, who exerts his Power over such as are like himself ; in the same manner as Beelzebub Prince of the Devils, mention’d in the Gospel : That the Scripture gives him the Name of a Bird, because of his great Agility and Readiness: That it was he that tempted Eve in the Garden, and was cursed of God; whence came his Name Reseph, which may signify, to creep upon the Ground3: And, lastly, that this Serpent presented himself before our Saviour, after he came out of the Water of his Baptism, and tempted him in the Wilderness forty Days.
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