Forty long years I was grieved with that generation, and said, “They are a people who err in their heart. They have not known my ways.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 10. Reigned. Saint Bernard says, “the kingdom of Jesus is in the wood.” D.—S. Justin (dial.) accuses the Jews of retrenching απο του ξυλου, “from the wood,” which all the Latin Fathers, except S. Jerom, acknowledge in their copies. That ancient author, being born among the Samaritans, could hardly be so ignorant of the Hebrew text, and his antagonist does not attempt to refute the charge; so that it seems probable, that they were in the original, (Bert.) and since erased by the Jews, from the Septuagint who added them, ( Worthington.) by the spirit of prophecy. Tournemine.—But how came Christians to permit this to be done in their Hebrew Greek, and Latin copies? The words in question may have been, therefore, a marginal gloss, which had crept into the text. Faber, Justiniani, and so forth—They do not occur in the parallel passage, (1 Par.) nor in the Vulg. though they be retained in the Rom. breviary. Calmet.—Lindan objects this perfidy of the Jews to the Reformers, not reflecting, that he thus condemns the Vulg. Genebrard is of opinion, that “the Septuagint were inspired to add these words, which some half-learned critics have thought proper to expunge with an impiety which is now but too common.” The Popes have not, however, thought that the cross stood in need of this support. Amama.—The Chaldee and Syriac, as well as all the copies of the Septuagint extant, and the Arab. and Ethiop. versions taken from it, and all the Greek interpreters and Fathers, (except S. Justin) with S. Jerom, both in his versions from the Hebrew and Septuagint omit these words, which are found in the Rom. Gothic, and other psalters. Origen’s Hexapla seem to have most enabled the Greeks to discern the interpolation, which the Latins retained longer, not having such easy access to that work. Whatever may be the decision on this important matter, it is certain that the reign of Christ was propagated from the wood, in a wonderful manner, as he there began to draw all to himself, and the prophet seems evidently to allude to the times when Christ proclaimed, the kingdom of God is at hand, and when the conversion of the Gentiles, and the institution of the blessed Eucharist (verse 8) would fill all the world with rapture. Bible.—The positive testimony of S. Justin, and the Italic version used by the Latin Fathers, (Bert.) Tertullian, Saint Augustine and so forth ( Worthington.) seems of more weight to prove the authenticity of the words, than the simple omission in the copies of Origen, and S. Jerom, and so forth to evince the contrary. Bert.—Corrected. Evil morals and idolatry, ( Menochius.) rather than the physical order of the globe. Psalms 92:1. Bert.—Hebrew “he hath balanced,” (Houbig.) or established. Bible.—The Christian faith shall not be abolished, ( Menochius.) or corrected. Bible.—“Faith is not to be reformed.” Tert.—Justice. Ancient psalter add, “and the Gentiles in his wrath,” verse 13. Psalms 98:8.