Habakkuk 3:14

"They will open their mouths like a pauper eating in secret." Just as a pauper who has remained fasting for some time, if he happens to find food somewhere, hastens to refresh himself with it in secret, and does not want to bring it out in public, lest it be snatched away by another, and he perishes from hunger: similarly, the peoples of the nations, having been offered by the apostles the bread of the word, from which they had long remained fasting, immediately opened the mouths of their hearts and began to taste it with all avidity, dedicating themselves more to hearing or reading the Scriptures, the more they remembered they had long subjected their ears and minds to superfluous, even harmful, teachings in the most miserable kind of poverty. The order in which the poverty of the nations came to perceive the delicacies of the word is hinted at when it is added:

You cut off the heads of the mighty in their alienation; the nations will be moved in it. In the Greek, it is written "in ecstasy," which some have interpreted as "in stupor," others "in mental excess." Whether it is called stupor, alienation, or mental excess, it all means the same thing: when someone, astonished and bewildered by a sudden miracle, is rendered alien from their own mind, something the Evangelical history frequently recounts as having happened to the Jews, saying they were astounded and marveled at the teachings and virtues of Jesus, saying: "Where did this man get all these things, whose father and mother we know?" (John 6:42). And in the Acts of the Apostles, when the lame man was healed by Peter and John at the temple gate, it says: "They were filled with astonishment and ecstasy" (Acts 3:10), in which ecstasy, that is, admiration or mental alienation, many people were moved to believe in the Lord; but the heads of the mighty, that is, the chief priests and elders, were cut off by not believing, from the lot of the faithful. Nations were also moved in it, when, hearing or seeing the virtues of the Lord and his apostles, they were so astonished and amazed that, anathemaing and rejecting the gods they had worshipped, they devoutly received the new faith of Christ. Regarding them, aptly it is added:

LXX: They will be moved in it (or in that), they will open their mouths like a poor person eating in hiding (or in a hidden place). When their heads are divided from their bodies, and divided only in a state of stupor, which in Greek is called ἐν ἐκστάσει: hence according to that, it is declined and said, ἐν αὐτῇ, which means in it, they will also open their mouths, or of them (both can be understood), so that that authority by which they previously ruled over their subjected bodies, giving way to a better horseman, and a better charioteer. And let them do this as if they are eating in secret, not having freedom, nor an abundance of food, but rather small portions of food, with which they eat secretly, not wanting anyone to see what they are doing. It can also be interpreted differently: When their heads are divided in astonishment, as if separated from the rest of the body, they will open their mouths, which had been unrestrained like a muzzle of condemnation, and, resembling those who are eating, they will gnash their teeth against themselves, desiring to eat again but lacking the power to devour. Understand how after the coming of Christ the heads of demons from the nations, which had previously been subjugated to them, desire to exercise their ancient power again. But because they have been separated from their bodies, they do not have full freedom to feed: they eat like the poor, and not only are they poor, but they are poor in hiding. They are poor because they have lost their former riches: they eat in hiding, because they always lie in wait, intending to kill the innocent in secret. These headings have the same teeth as arrows. And although he may have said before, I will ascend above the stars of heaven, I will place my nest on high, and I will hold the whole world like eggs in my hand, yet they will be taken down from the heights and will lose their former furnishings, and all the substance of their house, so that they will scarcely try to eat and bite like beggars. I know that the Hebrew text differs greatly from what has been said, but what can I do, to whom it has once been proposed to interpret both the Hebrew and the commonly known scriptures throughout the whole world?