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About this quote

What does it mean?
Neglected followers suffer internally while hidden predators destroy them unnoticed until final judgment.
In plain terms
Starving people suffer quietly until a final blow comes.
What can you take from it?
Neglect and hidden dangers lead to destruction.

Where it applies

  • political oppression
  • spiritual neglect
  • corruption

Putting it to work

  • warn leaders
  • highlight neglect

Questions to consider

  • Who goes unfed in your community?
  • What hidden dangers exist?

Another view

The metaphor is dense and requires context to fully grasp.

More from John Milton

  1. Blind mouths! That scarce themselves know how to hold A sheep-hook.

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  2. Throw hither all your quaint enamell'd eyes That on the green turf suck the honied showers, And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Bring the rathe prim…

    Permalink to quote #110
  3. Last came, and last did go, The Pilot of the Galilean lake; Two massy keys he bore of metals twain, (The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).

    Permalink to quote #107

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