Deus, venerunt gentes. The church in time of persecution prayeth for relief. It seems to belong to the time of the Machabees.
The Prophet, in person of the Church, lamenteth the crueltie of persecutors (both in the old and new testament) 5. prayeth for release, with iust reuenge against Gods enimies, that blaspheme his name, 3. and promiseth to be gratful in diuine praises.
1A psalm for Asaph. O God, the heathens are come into thy inheritance, they have defiled thy holy temple: they have made Jerusalem as a place to keep fruit.Salmo di Asaph. O Dio, son venute le nazioni nella tua eredità, han profanato il tempio tuo santo, han cangiata Gerusalemme in un tugurio da guardiani delle frutta:A Psalme to Asaph. O God the Gentiles are come into thine inheritance, they haue polluted thy holie temple: they haue made Ierusalem as a watch toure of fruits.Psalmus Asaph. Deus, venerunt gentes in hæreditatem tuam; / polluerunt templum sanctum tuum; / posuerunt Jerusalem in pomorum custodiam. 2They have given the dead bodies of thy servants to be meat for the fowls of the air: the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.Han gettato i cadaveri de' tuoi servi pasto agli uccelli dell'aria, le carni de' santi tuoi alle fiere della terra.They haue made the carcases of thy seruants, meats for the foules of the aire: the flesh of thy sainctes for the beastes of the land.Posuerunt morticina servorum tuorum escas volatilibus cæli; / carnes sanctorum tuorum bestiis terræ. 3They have poured out their blood as water, round about Jerusalem and there was none to bury them.Hanno sparso come acqua il loro sangue intorno a Gerusalemme, e non v'era chi desse lor sepoltura.They haue poured out their bloude as water round about Ierusalem: and there was none to burie them.Effuderunt sanguinem eorum tamquam aquam in circuitu Jerusalem, / et non erat qui sepeliret. 4We are become a reproach to our neighbours: a scorn and derision to them that are round about us.Siam divenuti oggetto di ignominia pe' nostri vicini; di insulto, e di scherno per que', che ci stanno all'intorno.We are become a reproch to our neighboures: a scorne and mocke to them that are round about vs.Facti sumus opprobrium vicinis nostris; / subsannatio et illusio his qui in circuitu nostro sunt. 5How long, O Lord, wilt thou be angry for ever: shall thy zeal be kindled like a fire?E fino a quando, o Signore, sarai sdegnato implacabilmente, e arderà come fuoco il tuo zelo?How long ô Lord wilt thou be angrie for euer: shal thy zele be kindled as a fire?Usquequo, Domine, irasceris in finem ? / accendetur velut ignis zelus tuus ? 6Pour out thy wrath upon the nations that have not known thee: and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon thy name.Scarica il tuo sdegno sopra le genti, che non ti conoscono, e sopra i regni, che non hanno invocato il tuo nome.Poure out thy wrath vpon the Gentiles, that haue not knowne thee: & vpon the kingdomes, that haue not inuocated thy name.Effunde iram tuam in gentes quæ te non noverunt, / et in regna quæ nomen tuum non invocaverunt:
7Because they have devoured Jacob; and have laid waste his place.Perché hanno divorato Giacobbe, e han devastata la casa di lui.Because they haue deuoured Iacob: and his place they haue made desolate.quia comederunt Jacob, / et locum ejus desolaverunt. 8Remember not our former iniquities: let thy mercies speedily prevent us, for we are become exceeding poor.Non ti ricordare delle pristine nostre iniquità: ci prevengano prontamente le tue misericordie, perché noi siam divenuti oltre modo miserabili.Remember not our old iniquities, let thy mercies quickly preuent vs: because we are become exceding poore.Ne memineris iniquitatum nostrarum antiquarum; / cito anticipent nos misericordiæ tuæ, / quia pauperes facti sumus nimis. 9Help us, O God, our saviour: and for the glory of thy name, O Lord, deliver us: and forgive us our sins for thy name’s sake:Aiutaci, o Dio, nostro Salvatore, e a gloria del nome tuo liberaci, e sii propizio a' peccati nostri pel nome tuo:Help vs ô God our sauiour: and for the glorie of thy name ô Lord deliuer vs: and be propicious to our sinnes for thy names sake.Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster, / et propter gloriam nominis tui, Domine, libera nos: / et propitius esto peccatis nostris, propter nomen tuum. 10Lest they should say among the Gentiles: Where is their God? And let him be made known among the nations before our eyes, By the revenging the blood of thy servants, which hath been shed:Affinchè non siavi forse tralle nazioni chi dica: il Dio loro dov'è? Nota sia tralle nazioni, veggenti noi, La vendetta del sangue de' servi tuoi, che è stato sparso:Lest they say perhaps amongst the Gentiles: where is their God? and be notified in the nations before our eies. The reuenge of the bloud of thy seruants, which hath benne shed:Ne forte dicant in gentibus: Ubi est Deus eorum ? / et innotescat in nationibus coram oculis nostris / ultio sanguinis servorum tuorum qui effusus est. 11Let the sighing of the prisoners come in before thee. According to the greatness of thy arm, take possession of the children of them that have been put to death.siano ammessi al tuo cospetto i gemiti di que', che sono in catene. Conserva col tuo gran braccio i figliuoli di que', che furono uccisi.let the groning of thefettered enter in thy sight. According to the greatnes of thine arme, possesse thou the children of them that are put to death.Introëat in conspectu tuo gemitus compeditorum; / secundum magnitudinem brachii tui posside filios mortificatorum: 12And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.E rendi, o Signore, a' nostri vicini nel loro seno sette volte tanto pe' loro improperj vomitati contro di te.And render to our neighboures seuenfold in their bosome: their reproch where with they haue reproched thee ô Lord.et redde vicinis nostris septuplum in sinu eorum; / improperium ipsorum quod exprobraverunt tibi, Domine.
13But we thy people, and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks to thee for ever. We will shew forth thy praise, unto generation and generation.Ma noi tuo popolo, e pecorelle della tua greggia ti confesseremo eternamente. Annunzierem le lodi tue d'una in altra generazione.But we thy people, and the sheepe of thy pasture, wil confesse to thee for euer: Vnto generation and generation we wil shew forth thy praise.Nos autem populus tuus, et oves pascuæ tuæ, / confitebimur tibi in sæculum; / in generationem et generationem annuntiabimus laudem tuam.
78:1
Berthier
If the ancient (Haydock) Asaph, or David, composed this psalm, it must be considered as a prediction of the ruin caused by Nabuchodonosor, or by Epiphanes. (Berthier, T. v.)
Haydock
The author of 1 Machabees 7:17. accommodates it to the sufferings of those (Calmet) whom Alcimus destroyed; or rather the prophet had them also in view as well as Christian martyrs. (Haydock)
St. Augustine
He cannot speak of the last ruin of Jerusalem, since it would have been improper to pray for its restoration. (St. Augustine)
Berthier
Fruit. A mean village, (Menochius) as Isaias 1:8. had threatened. Hebrew, "a heap of stones," (St. Jerome) in the field, Micheas 1:6. Such was the condition of Jerusalem under Nabuchodonosor (Calmet) and Ephiphanes, 1 Machabees 1:(Berthier)
Worthington
Catholics have been persecuted in every country, and forced to use mean houses for divine worship. (Worthington)
78:2
Calmet
Saints. The Assideans, who were the most esteemed for piety, 1 Machabees 2:42. In the worst of times, there were always some pious Israelites, and the generality of them were less wicked than their enemies, who exercised a horrid barbarity in refusing them burial, after destroying vast numbers, 2 Paralipomenon 36:17. (Calmet)
Haydock
This was done at least under Epiphanes, 1 Machabees 7:16. (Haydock)
Haydock
Persecutors have hung the bodies of martyrs on poles to be the food of birds, (Worthington) as the missionary priests were treated in England not long ago. Hebrew is here rather inaccurate, (Haydock) "to the wild beast of the earth itself;" (Montanus) lechaitho arets, being put forth léith, earts, (Houbigant) as Protestants themselves translate. (Haydock)
78:4
Calmet
Us. The Idumeans, etc., are hence blamed by the prophets, Ezechiel 25:12., and Abdias 10. (Calmet)
Worthington
Christ and his disciples have been treated with scorn, (Berthier) being styled Galileans, Papists, etc. (Worthington)
78:5
Calmet
Zeal, or jealousy, as God has the greatest affection for his people, and resents their infidelity as a kind of adultery. (Calmet)
Worthington
Sin is the source of misery. (Worthington)
78:6
Berthier
Name. Their ignorance was of course culpable. (Berthier)
Berthier
This prayer is prophetical, (St. Augustine) or insinuates that those infidels were still more deserving of punishment. (Berthier)
Calmet
By destroying Israel, the number of God's worshippers would be lessened. (Calmet)
Worthington
Yet this consideration would not hinder God from chastising them; and it is not absolutely true that pagans are always more guilty. Those who know the will of their master, and do it not, shall suffer many stripes. [Luke 12:47.] Having the true faith, they may, however, (Haydock) be sooner converted. (Worthington)
78:7
Houbigant
They have devoured. So Pagnin ventured to translate the Hebrew. But Montanus substitutes the singular, though it be evidently incorrect, (Haydock) and contrary to all the ancient versions and the parallel passage, (Jeremias 10:25.) as well as to Manuscript 3, Lambeth 435, etc., (Kennicott) v being lost at the end of acol. (Houbigant)
Calmet
Place. Hebrew also, "beauty," the ark or temple. (Calmet)
78:8
Calmet
Former iniquities, which we and our fathers have committed. The Hebrews generally pray for the remission of their parent's faults, Lamentations 5:7., Baruch 3:5., and Daniel 9:5. (Calmet)
Berthier
But here the penitents' own transgressions may be meant. (Berthier)
Worthington
God is ready to pardon such. (Worthington)
78:9
St. Augustine
Help. The necessity of grace, and the co-operation of free-will, are here plainly asserted. (St. Augustine)
78:10
Their God. Let him rescue his people. Cicero (pro Flacco) speaking of the Jewish nation, says, "How dear it was to the immortal gods, appears from its being overcome, enslaved," etc.
Eusebius † AD 339
Shed. He speaks not of revenge; (Calmet) but in order that chastisement may open the eyes of the infidels, that they may be converted. (Eusebius)
Worthington
Let none suspect that thou disregardest thy people. The event will evince the contrary. (Worthington)
78:11
Calmet
Put. Chaldean, "consigned." (Calmet)
Worthington
Protect the successors of the martyrs. (Worthington)
78:12
St. Jerome
Bosom. Punish them severely (Calmet) in this world. (St. Jerome)
Many of the surrounding nations were subdued by Nabuchodonosor, five years after he had conquered the Jews. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] 10:10.) (Jeremias 49:7., etc.)
78:1
to be sungue by Asaph and his companie, in the behalfe of people vnited in faith.
Cruel infidels haue inuaded those thinges, which perteyne to thy Church.
euen possessed and prophaned the holie temple of the Iewes, and Churches of Catholique Christians. Fulfilled by Antiochus, in Ierusalem; by the Vandals in Afrike, by Protestants, and Puritanes, in diuers partes of Europe, and wil be more vniuersally by Antichrist in al Christendom.
Insteed of great and fare Churches, Gods seruantes are fane to vse meane houses, yea poore cotages.
78:2
Some persecutors suffer not Martyrs bodies to be buried, but hang them on polles, and pinnacles, where birdes may eate them.
78:4
Christianes Gallileans, Catholiques Homousians, and now Papistes, in spite and reproch.
78:5
Sinnes prouoking Gods wrath, are one cause why he suffereth his people to be persecuted.
78:6
Though the faithful committe some sinnes, yet in respect that they beleue righly, haue zele in Gods cause, and denie not God, they are nerer to grace and fauour.
78:8
Especially when they repent, and confesse their sinnes, then those that neither know not wil know God; but obstinatly impugne and resist the truth.
so much afflicted, and despised, that none wil regard the truth which we professe.
78:10
Albeit ô Lord, thou suffer vs to be punished, yet suffer not thyn enimies to insult, as though thou were not our God; and consequently thou haddest no people at al in the world.
Therfore we pray, that the reuenge of thy seruantes bloud may be so notified, that it can not be denied, nor doubted of. Which is also here prophecied, that it wil so come to passe in the end.
78:11
Preserue also, ô God, the reliques of thy seruantes, the successors of thy Martyrs.
78:12
This also is a prophecie, that God wil most seuerely reuenge the blasphemie of persecutors.
78:13
Gods people deliuered from persecution, and perpetually conserued, wil alwayes praise God for the same.
78:1
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 5.20
… And he brought in fornicators into the house of the Lord, and he caused the observances of the Law to cease. And he slew righteous men and gave them to the birds of heaven and to the beasts of the earth. For in his days was fulfilled the word that David spoke:
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 20.20
… How high and how deep are the oracles of the Holy Spirit! We said at Matins, as you, brethren, remember, and made the response with the greatest grief of mind: “O God, the heathen are come into Thine inheritance.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 127.12
… and tore each other limb from limb that they might have flesh to eat. Even the mother did not spare the babe at her breast. In the night was Moab taken, in the night did her wall fall down. “O God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have made Jerusalem an orchard.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.1
“O God, the Gentiles have come into Thine inheritance” (
78:2
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 1.12
… It is said, indeed, in the Psalm: “The dead bodies of Thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of Thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Care to Be Had for the Dead 4
… It is said indeed in the Psalm, “The dead bodies of thy servants have they given for meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth: they have shed their blood like water round about Jerusalem, and there was no man to bury them:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.2
2. “They have defiled Thy holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples.” “They have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.5
5. “They have made,” he saith, “the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.8
… For these two words must be understood in the same manner as that word which was used a little higher up, namely, “they have made.” For while the former sentence hath, “they have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven:”
78:3
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 17
But these things were done by reason of another, a far greater wickedness; I mean, had He made it necessary to keep in the house her even that was hated, the husband, hating, would have killed her. For such was the race of the Jews. For they who did not spare children, who slew prophets, and “shed blood as water,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.2
2. “They have defiled Thy holy Temple, they have made Jerusalem for a keeping of apples.” “They have made the dead bodies of Thy servants morsels for the fowls of heaven, the fleshes of Thy saints for the beasts of the earth” ( ver. 2 ). “They have poured forth their blood like water in the circuit of Jerusalem, and there was no one to bury them” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.6
6. “They have poured forth their blood like water,” that is, abundantly and wantonly, “in the circuit of Jerusalem” (
78:4
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.12
… It is a light thing in Thine eyes to make poor and to make rich, to make alive and to kill, to strike and to heal, and Thy will is perfect action. Thou art angry, and we have sinned, says one of old, making confession; and it is now time for me to say the opposite, “We have sinned, and Thou art angry:” therefore have we become a reproach to our neighbours.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.7
7. “We have become,” he saith, “a reproach to our neighbours” (
Theodoret of Cyrus † AD 458 Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus 152
… ‘We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a scorn and derision to them that are round about us,’
78:5
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 8.12
… And, not indeed in these words, yet to this effect, spake I much unto Thee,—“But Thou, O Lord, how long?” “How long, Lord? Wilt Thou be angry for ever? Oh, remember not against us former iniquities;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.8
8. In the second place now giving utterance to an evident prayer, whence it may be perceived that the calling to remembrance of former affliction is not by way of information but prayer; “How long,” he saith, “O Lord, wilt Thou be angry, unto the end? shall Thy jealousy burn like fire?” (
78:6
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 235.3
… “And the ass his master’s crib.” So the ass knows the essence of the crib, but “Israel doth not know me.” So, according to you, Israel is found fault with for not knowing what the essence of God is. “Pour out thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known thee,”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.12
… But stay, Lord, cease, Lord, forgive, Lord, deliver us not up for ever because of our iniquities, and let not our chastisements be a warning for others, when we might learn wisdom from the trials of others. Of whom? Of the nations which know Thee not, and kingdoms which have not been subject to Thy power. But we are Thy people,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.9
9. But that which he addeth, “Pour forth Thine anger upon the nations which have not known Thee, and upon the kingdoms which have not called upon Thy name” (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.29
… For those who deplore sins of deed are to be admonished that perfected lamentations should wash out consummated evils, lest they be bound by a greater debt of perpetrated deed than they pay in tears of satisfaction for it. For it is written, He hath given us drink in tears by measure (
78:7
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.10
10. Lastly, there followeth, “For they have eaten up Jacob, and his place they have made desolate” (
78:9
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 20.17
… You, though you are the members of your god, are given to the enemy, whose ferocity you keep off from your god only by being contaminated with their impurity, infected with their corruptions, without any fault of your own. You cannot in your prayers use the words: "Free us, O Lord, for the glory of Thy name; and for Thy name’s sake pardon our sins."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.12
12. Therefore there followeth, “Help us, O God, our healing One” (
78:10
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 60.13
… Thou, O God, that wilt not march forth in our powers, wilt lead down. What is, “wilt not march forth in our powers”? The world is to rage, the world is to tread us down, there is to be a heap of witnesses, builded of the spilled blood of martyrs, and the raging heathen are to say, “Where is the God of them?”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.13
13. But that which he addeth, “lest at any time they should say among the Gentiles, Where is their God?” (
78:11
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 108.19
… “I was troubled and I did not speak,” and then cried out in the words of scripture, “He that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.” And she prayed to the Lord and said: Lord “preserve thou the children of those that are appointed to die,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 48.1
… not that we have these on our own account, but we can scarcely breathe for the pressure of such duties imposed upon us by men compelling us, so to speak, to go with them one mile, with whom we are commanded by our Lord to go farther than they ask. We believe, nevertheless, that He before whom the sighing of the prisoner comes
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 15
… But may God, into whose cognizance the “groaning of them that are bound enters,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 102.20
20. “Out of the heaven did the Lord look down upon the earth” ( ver. 19 ): “that He might hear the mournings of such as are in fetters, and deliver the children of such as are put to death” ( ver. 20 ). We have found it said in another Psalm, “O let the sorrowful sighs of the fettered come before Thee;”
78:12
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 13.30
… that which he has done, for “Jerusalem,” as Isaiah taught, “received from the hand of the Lord double for her sins;” but the neighbours of Israel, whoever they may be, will receive sevenfold, according to the following expression in the Psalms, “Render unto our neighbours sevenfold into their bosom the reproach with which they have reproached Thee, O Lord.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.5
… How is it that some receive at the Lord’s hand double for their sins, and the measure of their wickedness is doubly filled up, as in the correction of Israel, while the sins of others are done away by a sevenfold recompense into their bosom?
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 41
… And we may see it by the contrary also (for the punishment of wickedness is to be praised), Cain being avenged seven times, that is, punishment being exacted from him for his fratricide, and Lamech seventy times seven, because he was a murderer after the law and the condemnation. And wicked neighbours receive sevenfold into their bosom;
78:13
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.9
… if greater the anger of God is against the nations, which have not known the Lord? For in this which he saith, “Pour forth Thine anger,” with this word he hath clearly enough pointed out, how great anger he hath willed that there should be understood. Whence afterwards he saith, “Render to our neighbours seven times as much.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 79.16
16. “Render,” he saith, “to our neighbours seven times so much into their bosoms” (
78:1
… The generic sense of "teaching" also appears in the didactic books: the t. is given by God to his faithful one (Job 22, 22; Ps. 78, 1 Heb.), by the sages (Prov. 3, 1; 4, 2; 6, 23; 7, 2; 13, 14), by the mother (ibid. 1, 8; 6, 20; 31, 26); Yahweh (or his representative) will give it in the messianic kingdom (Is. …
78:2
… Jud., XII, 10, 2), faithless, slaughtered 60 of them in one day, fulfilling with this massacre Ps. 78, 2-3 (I Macc. 7, 12-17). Having discovered the deceit and taken up arms again with greater fury, they reduced Alcimus to dire straits, who confessed to Demetrius that the A. [Asideans] …
78:13
… Is. 43:16; 51:10; Ps. 66:6; 78:13; 106:9; 114:3); Moses (v.) emerges in the history of Israel as liberator, shaper of national unity and lawgiver; Hebrew worship was formed of feasts (Passover and Pentecost) and customs …
78:44
… There are ten of them, and they followed one another in the order described in Ex. 7:14-12:26. In Ps. 78:44-52; 105:27-36, the order is somewhat different and the list incomplete; a commentary and poetic amplification, for the didactic purposes of the book, is found in Wis. 11:14-20; 16:1-18:25, …
78:60
Tabernacle (Tent) of Meeting (Hebrew 'Ohel, usually followed by Me'eth: "Tabernacle of Convene")
… it, taking possession of it (Ex. 40). The T. followed the Israelites in their vicissitudes from the desert to the Holy Land: at Gilgal (Josh. 4:19; 5:10; 9:6; 10:6 ff. 9:15, 43; 14:6); at Shiloh (ibid. 18:1; 19:51; Judg. 18:31; 21:19; 1 Sam. 1-4; 14:3; Ps. 78:60); at Nob (1 Sam. 21:1); at Gibeon (1 Chron. 16:39; 21:29; 2 Chron. 1:3); on Zion (1 Kings 3:4). After the Temple was built, it was preserved as a relic in an upper room of it. Jeremiah …
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.