Three Kinds Of Enemy

Eduxi te de terra Aegypti... Egredientes de Aegypto Deus a tribus generibus hostium liberavit: In Aegypto ab Aegyptiis insequentibus, in medio ab Amalecitis, in ingressa terrae promissionis ab Amorrhaeis occurentibus. Sunt igitur generae hostium tria, a tergo, a latere, a facie. Primi in conversione; secundi in conversatione, quasi in medio; tertii in solutione carnis et animae, et ita in fine. Haec sunt illa tria difficilia apud Solomonem. Via colubri super terram, id est, suggestio; via navis inmedio maris, id est tentatio vitae hominis super terram in amaritudine; via aquilae in coelo, id est intentio alicujus circa finem, scilicet contemplatio, qua in coelum pennis virtutum anima justi quasi aquila volat. Hugo De Sancte Victore, Miscellanea, Liber III, Tit XXIII Source: Migne PL 177.647a-b

I led you out of the land of Egypt...1 He freed those going out of Egypt from three kinds of enemy: in Egypt from the pursuing Egyptians, in the midst of the journey from the Amalekites, and on entering the Promised Land from encounters with the Amorites. There are therefore three types of enemy, from behind, from the side, and from in front. The first come in association, the second in living, as in the middle, and the third in the dissolution of the flesh and the soul, and thus at the end. These are the three difficulties mentioned by Solomon. 2 'The way of a serpent on the earth,' that is, suggestion; 'the track of a ship in the midst of the sea,' that is, the trial of life of a man on the earth amid bitterness; 'the way of an eagle on high,' that is the thought someone gives to the end, that is, contemplation, by which the soul of the righteous man flies like an eagle in heaven on the wings of the virtues. Hugh Of Saint Victor, Miscellanea, Book 3, Chap 23 1 Mich 6.4 2 Prov 30.18-19