Thus there is the expression in Exodus: “From the firstborn of Pharaoh to the firstborn of the captive woman who was in the pit.” [Exo 12:29.] But they even threw Jeremiah also into a pit. His brothers through jealousy confined Joseph in a pit without water. [Gen 37:24.] Each act, therefore, either draws us downward by oppressing us with sin or lifts us upward by raising us on wings toward God. Therefore, you have saved me, I who formerly lived a wicked life, and have separated me from those who go down to the dark and frigid region. The meaning of the words “you have upheld me” is to say, “you have led me back from my downward course, so as not to give my enemies an occasion to rejoice over me.”—St Basil the Great