Verse 32. — 'He shall be led to the tombs, and shall keep watch in the heap of the dead.' In the multitude of sinners, as in a heap of the dead, and in the tombs, Satan keeps watch. — Because tombs cover the dead, what else is designated by tombs but the reprobate, in whom souls extinguished from the life of blessedness lie hidden as it were in tombs? This wicked one, therefore, shall be led to the tombs, because he shall be received in the hearts of the perverse, since those alone receive him in whom souls dead to God are found. Concerning whom it is also rightly said, while his torments are described, through the prophet: 'Round about him are his tombs, all the slain, and those who fell by the sword' (Ezekiel 32:22).
For they in hell are near him, in whom that same malignant spirit lies dead. Who, struck by the sword of his iniquity, have fallen. Whence it is written: 'You who delivered David Your servant from the malignant sword' (Psalm 143:10). But it is rightly said: 'And he shall keep watch in the heap of the dead,' because now in the congregation of sinners he puts forth the snares of his cunning. But because in the world the good are few and the evil are a multitude, it is rightly called a heap of the dead, so that the very multitude of the wicked may be signified. For 'wide is the way that leads to perdition, and many there are who enter by it' (Matthew 7:13).
For Satan to keep watch in the heap of the dead is to exercise the cunning of his malice in the hearts of the reprobate. Concerning whom it is further added: