One of my favorite lines from Shakespeare comes from Macbeth. Caithness said of Macbeth, “He cannot buckle his distempered cause within the belt of rule.” “Distempered” meant swollen or even, in the context, “fat.” Caithness was noting that Macbeth lacked self-control, that his “cause” (or will) was so enlarged that it could not be contained by the “belt of rule.” The image is that of a corpulent man who cannot fit his belt around his middle.

It makes me think of Proverbs 25:28, “He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls.”