Saepe expugnaverunt. The church of God is invincible: her persecutors come to nothing. A gradual canticle.
The Church often (3. and much) impugned, is not ouercome. 4. Her persecuters are destroyed, 6. contemned, 8. and cursed.
1Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.Cantico dei gradi. Spesse volte mi hanno combattuto dalla mia giovinezza: dica adesso Israele:A gradual Canticle. OFTEN haue they impugned me from my youth, let Israel now say:Canticum graduum. Sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea, / dicat nunc Israël; 2Often have they fought against me from my youth: but they could not prevail over me.Spesse volte mi hanno combattuto dalla mia giovinezza, ma non ebber forze bastanti contro di me.Often haue they impugned me from my youth: but they haue not preuailed against me.sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea: / etenim non potuerunt mihi. 3The wicked have wrought upon my back: they have lengthened their iniquity.Sulle mie spalle han fatto crudo lavoro i peccatori: han continuata lungamente la loro iniquità.Sinners haue builded vpon my backe: they haue prolonged their iniquitie.Supra dorsum meum fabricaverunt peccatores; / prolongaverunt iniquitatem suam. 4The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners:Il giusto Signore ha troncate le teste de' peccatori:Our iust Lord wil cut the neckes of sinners:Dominus justus / concidit cervices peccatorum. 5Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.siano confusi, e in fuga volti tutti coloro, che odian Sionne.let them al be confounded and turned backward, that hate Sion.Confundantur, et convertantur retrorsum / omnes qui oderunt Sion. 6Let them be as grass upon the tops of houses: which withereth before it be plucked up:Sian come l'erba de' tetti, la quale prima di esser colta si secca.Let them be made as grasse in the toppes of houses: which is withered before it be plucked vp.Fiant sicut fœnum tectorum, / quod priusquam evellatur exaruit: 7Who with the mower filleth not his hand: nor he that gathereth sheaves his bosom.Della quale non potè empier il pugno il mietitore, né il seno colui, che raccoglie i manipoli.Wherof the reaper hath not filled his hand, and he that gathereth the sheaues his bosome.de quo non implevit manum suam qui metit, / et sinum suum qui manipulos colligit. 8And they that passed by have not said: The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord.E i passeggeri non han detto: La benedizione del Signore sopra di voi: noi vi abbiam benedetti nel nome del Signore.And they sayd not that passed by: The blessing of our Lord be vpon you: we haue blessed you in the name of our Lord.Et non dixerunt qui præteribant: / Benedictio Domini super vos. / Benediximus vobis in nomine Domini.
128:1
Calmet
Canticle. In which David, (Haydock) or the Jews, at their return, after they had got the better of their enemies, render thanks to God. (St. Chrysostom) (Calmet)
Berthier
It may suit the Church, Jesus Christ, and every person: as none can escape trouble. (Berthier)
Fought against. Hebrew, "afflicted."
Haydock
Expugnaverunt might seem to imply that they had obtained the victory. But this was not the case, at least eventually, though the people of God might sometimes be oppressed, and yield to sin. (Haydock)
Calmet
Youth. Since the Israelites left Egypt, Osee 2:15., and Jeremias 2:2. (Calmet)
128:2
Haydock
But. Or "for," etenim. On this account they repeated their attacks. (Haydock)
Worthington
But the psalmist testifies that they will not succeed. (Worthington)
128:3
Theodoret
Back. Hebrew, "labourers have laboured on my neck," (St. Jerome) or "back." They have made me bear the yoke, or have ploughed up my back. This proverbial expression shews the cruelty of the Babylonians, (Calmet) and of the enemies of Christ, (Isaias 50:6.) and the martyrs. (Theodoret)
Berthier
Hebrew charash, means also to work like a blacksmith, Genesis 4:22. (Berthier)
Worthington
The Church bears patiently all crosses. Sinners build on her, or even on God's back, when they go on in their wicked ways, presuming that they will be saved at last by the sacraments, etc. (Worthington)
128:4
Calmet
Necks. Hebrew, "collars," (Theodotion) "snares," (Symmachus) or "bands," with which they have oppressed us. Cyrus abandoned the Babylonians to be slaves of those Persians who had taken them, and made them till the land, etc. (Zenoph. vii.) (Calmet)
128:5
Calmet
Back. By a sincere conversion. (Calmet)
Worthington
God will cover the presumptuous with eternal confusion, so that none shall bless them, ver. 8. (Worthington)
128:6
Houses. Which were flat, so that grass might grow, but the heat of the climate would not suffer it to come to perfection.
St. Jerome
Up. (St. Jerome)
Haydock
Chaldean, "flourish," as some copies of the Septuagint read. Yet Hammond, etc., declare for our version. The precise import of the Hebrew is not known. The same comparison occurs, (4 Kings 19:26.; Calmet) and Plautus says, Qualis solstitialis herba paulisper fui, etc. (Pseud. i.) (Haydock)
128:8
Upon you. Chaldean adds, "and they did not reply."
Haydock
We, etc. (Haydock)
Calmet
The custom of blessing reapers continued in the days of St. Augustine, Ruth 2:4. (Calmet)
Berthier
The wicked render themselves incapable of deriving benefit from the good wishes of others. (Berthier)
128:1
Israel vvhich is the Church of God, reioycing saith: that enimies haue often,
euen from the beginning of the world, persecuted me, as when Cain persecuted Abel, other wicked persecuted Seth, Enoch, Noe: the Chalders persecuted Abraham: the Aegyptians persecuted the Israelites: and so in other generations.
128:2
But they haue neuer ouercome me. So the Psalmist testifieth for al times past, & prophecieth the same for times to come.
128:3
Persecuters not being able to ouerthrow, or suppresse the Church, haue laide great weightie burdens of tribulations vpon her backe, which she hath patiently and strongly borne,
they haue stil persisted, one sorte after an other, but with long animitie the Church hath stood fast, and constantly passed through al distresses. In moral sense sinners build iniquitie vpon the back of the Church, yea and vpon Gods back, when they presume to sinne, trusting in the end to be absolued by vertue of holie Sacraments leift in the Church. Likewise when they excuse their sinnes, imputing the cause to other creatures of God, vvherby they are allured, vvhich is in effect (saith S. Augustin) to accuse God, and to build iniquities on Gods back, vvho made those creatures.
God therfore who is iust, vvil at last cast such presumptuous sinners from his back, and breake their stiffe neckes:
128:5
then shal they be confounded,
separated eternally from God, become like fruitles, and vvithered grasse, cast avvay, despised, yea cursed of al, and blessed by none, as the Prophet denounceth in the next verses.
128:1
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 88.13
… The Church is “poor,” as she hungers and thirsts in her wanderings for that food with which she shall be filled in her own country: she is “in toils from her youth up,” as the very Body of Christ saith in another Psalm, “Many a time have they overcome me from my youth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.2
2. “Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up” (
128:2
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.3
… But let the Church reply through some, that is, through the voice of the stronger, let her reply to the complaints of the weak, and let the stable confirm the unstable, and the full-grown the infant, and let the Church say, “Many a time have they vexed me from my youth up” (
128:3
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.4
4. “Upon my back have sinners built; they have done their iniquity afar off” (
128:4
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.7
7. “The righteous Lord shall hew the necks of the sinners” (
128:5
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.8
8. “Let them be confounded and turned backward, as many as have evil will at Sion” (
128:6
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 42.4
… Nay it did not deserve to be called a field, requiring neither barn nor threshing-floor, and not even worthy of the sickle; with neither heap nor sheaves, or small and untimely sheaves, like those on the housetop, which do not fill the hand of the reaper, nor call forth a blessing from them which go by.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.9
9. But what saith he of them? The next words are, “Let them be even as the grass of the house tops: that withereth before it be plucked up” (
128:7
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.9
… Thus also is the grass of the house tops cleared off, and whatever is plucked from it, is thrown into the fire; because it had withered even before it was plucked up. The reaper filleth not his hands thence. His next words are, “Whereof the reaper filleth not his hand; neither he that bindeth up the sheaves his bosom” (
128:8
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 129.10
10. “So that they who go by say not so much as, The blessing of the Lord be upon you: we have blessed you in the name of the Lord” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 20.9
… “But go forth,” says he, “do not linger in her place, nor fix thine eye on her;” lest if the angels see us taken up with unclean and foul thoughts, they may not be able to say to us in passing by: “The blessing of the Lord be upon you.”
128:3
v. 3 ex hebr: super dorsum meum araverunt aratores, longos fecerunt sulcos suos, vel, ut alii qeri explicant, latum fecerunt campum suum (arvum ; cf. | Sam. 14,14), ut Aq habet ἐμιήχυναν πλέθρον αὐτῶν ; diu me subiugaverunt, me proscindentes et longe lateque me lacerantes. Verum Domi- - nus
128:4
v. 4 iustus, fideliter scil. qui suis promissis stat et 1) se iustum ostendit, et populo et oppressoribus tribuens debita, funem impiorum - concidit, 1.6. finem imposuit arationi, eo ipso quod concidit funem quo | bos arator iunctus est aratro. Deus semper oppressioni finem imponens populum m libertatem vindicavit. Id praeprimis valet de ultima oppressione 6%י 81111 . Colligit vates. ex tempore praeterito et Dei protectione doctrinam et solatium pro reducibus
128:5
v. 5 : reduces infestantur ab osoribus Sion, tales praeprimis nominari possunt, qui aedificationt urbis impedimenta struere tentarunt et omnes qui nascentem rempublicam .sioniticam variis machinationibus impugnarunt. Quorum consilia ut plane irrita evadant et inania,
128:6
v. 6 comparatione exprimitur; gramen scil. in tectis planis nascens et parumper crescens mox propter loci ariditatem et infirmitatem radicum solis ardore exuritur et languescit ; ergo sicut . gramen illud non pervenit ad maturitatem et ad utilitatem hominum, ita eorum molimina et machinationes statim in primis initiis deficiant vulg, priusquam evellatur, explica : priusquam aptum sit ut colligatur, exarult, Aq ἀρχῆθεν ἀνέθαλεν ἐξηράνθη, quae ex Sym servata sunt πρὸ τοῦ ἐχχαυλῆσαι, praebent sensum : antequam caulem faciat, arescit; ita explica hebr שלף extrahere (scil. caulem). Tale gramen celeriter perit;
128:7
v. 7 sinum suum, vestem suam sinuosam, non implet ; nulla esse | potest eius graminis messis. Hac occasione psaltes iucunde aliqua describit quae. in messe fieri solebant;
128:8
v. 8 transeuntes metentibus bene precabantur : benedictio Domini super vos,-et quod additur fortasse est responsio et resalutatio messorum : benedicimus vobis in nomine Domini ; vide Ruth 2,4 : dixit Booz messoribus : Dominus vobiscum ; qui responderunt ei : benedicat tibi Dominus. Populus valde afflictus petit, ut .Deus memoria peccatorum relicta propitius sit populo propter legem speranti (v. 1-4). Haec spes amplius. fovetur et certa fiducia enuntiatur et ex Dei miseratione confirmatur (v. 5-8). Voces audiri gementium exsulum et ad spem sese confortantium generatim dE ali suspiria ex tempore Nehemiae audiri m opinantur. Ξ' E Fervens quidem oratio ascendit ex corde profundissimo et ex ipsis — mentis popettoeus (Chrys. Theod.), at bene iam. monet Zeracl. hic ἐχ βαθέων, οἷον ὑδάτων περιχεχυμένων τῶν θλίψεων clamorem +01[1, ex profunditatibus aquarum, i.e. ex summis tribulationibus clamo ad te; fluc-- tus, profunda aquarum sunt angustiae el calamitates ; vide 39, 3: 68. 348: 123,4.5. Agnoscunt se immersos 8101100018 et id muded ob. ^ .sua peccata. Nam id indicatur in v. 3 siiniquitates conservas (hebr), - . 81 peccata custodis apud te, si memoriam peccatorum admissorum | Theod, uti Theod. refert, et Hier vertit: tecum est propitiatio, cum terribilis sis. Textus mass. fert : ut timearis, quod Gen. explicat : ut homines te colant et venerentur. Varietas versionum ex consonantibus תורא facile intelligitur; Hier asserit legi tira, non tora (ep. ad Sun. et Fret.) Haee spes et fiducia etiam magis asseritur et roboratur; et in hebr v. 5 sperat seu exspectat anima mea et in verbum tuum spero, promissionem tuam praestolor; in v. 6 vulg tota die speret Israel in Domino ; 1.6. anima mea vehementius exspectat seu desiderat Dominum, quam custodes desiderant tempus matutinum, quo a custodia solvantur. Custodes in textu legerunt Aq, targum; custodiam seu vigilias legea vigilia matutina usque ad vigiliam matutinam, 1.e. semper, continuo). Et: bene effertur comparatio desiderii temporis matutini, temporis aurorae et lucis, symboli salutis post noctem tribulationis (cf. Is. 26,9 ; 60,2. Ps. 45,6; 58,17; 89,14). Et ratio huius spei redditur v. 7, Dominus dives est in miserationibus; apud eum est gratia, benevolentia et copiose cum eo redemptio (hebr), habet copiam, multos modos et subsidia, quibus efficere poterit redemptionem. Et haec redemptio etiam fore praedicitur v. 8 e£ ipse redimet, hac certa spe sese consolantur in exsilio; neque peccata poterunt ponere impedimenta ; nam redimet Israel ex omnibus peccatis suis; vide Ier. 3,22. Ez. 11,17- 20 ; ; 16,63; 34,11 sqq. 31,12. Os. 2,11.
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · Vulgata Clementina · original Douay-Rheims (Douay 1609-10), transcription by EEBO-TCP (CC0) · La Sacra Bibbia, tradotta dalla Volgata da Antonio Martini (1769-1781) (LaParola (laparola.net), Martini OSIS text, Public domain (LaParola's electronic edition marks it 'Dominio pubblico')). Public domain.