Note 479 — Chapter IV
Reading edition
Isa. ii. 22; cf. Job xxvii. 3; Wisd. ii. 2.—The words might be rendered "a spirit (spiritus) in her nostrils." The meaning is not clear. In the biblical passages in which the phrase occurs it indicates mortality. On the other hand, by the previous sentence St. Bernard suggests that, in contrast to Malachy, the woman spoke under the influence of an evil spirit.