Commentary on the Psalms 22

O God, keep not silence at my praise;

for the mouth of the sinner and the deceitful mouth are opened against me.

They have spoken against me with a deceitful tongue, and they have compassed me about with words of hatred, and warred against me without a cause.

In return for my loving them, they slandered me; but as for me, I gave myself to prayer.

And they laid upon me evil for good, and hatred in return for my love.

Set a sinner over him, and let an accuser stand at his right hand.

When he is judged, let him go forth condemned, and let his prayer become sin.

Let his days be few, and let another take his office.

Let his children be orphans, and his wife a widow;

let his children be tossed to and fro and driven into exile, and let them beg, let them be cast out of their homesteads.

Let the creditor search out all that belongs to him, and let strangers plunder the fruit of his labours.

Here we have need of much understanding.

For these words, taken according to their bare utterance and a careless hearing, throw many of those who do not attend into confusion.

For the whole psalm is filled with cursing, and the entire discourse runs through such matters, and it reveals a certain seething and burning wrath in the speaker, one that does not stop at the wrongdoer himself but extends the punishment even to his children, his father, and his mother, and is not content with a single calamity but heaps evils upon evils.

Set a sinner over him, and let an accuser stand at his right hand.

That is to say, may he fall under wicked and treacherous men as his accusers, and may he not prevail over them.

For this is what is meant by, 'When he is judged, let him go forth condemned.'

And he was not satisfied with this punishment, but along with this condemnation he prays that some other man should receive that man's honour after him, saying, 'Let another take his office.'

And not even here does he stop, but he silts up even the one harbour that was left, deeming him unworthy to obtain any of God's loving-kindness, and saying:

And let his prayer become sin.

And moreover he prays that he should undergo an untimely death.

'For let his days,' he says, 'be few.'

And not even here does he stop; although it would have been enough to say these things alone, yet he adds more, which is the mark of a soul greatly inflamed, namely, not to be content with one punishment or a second, but to ask that so many be brought upon him.

And the things that follow are yet far harsher than these.

For he imprecates orphanhood and widowhood upon those who are left behind.

And yet these things must of necessity come to pass when a man has departed;

but nevertheless he sets down even these in the form of a curse, seething with wrath.

And not even at orphanhood does he stop, but after such calamities he goes yet further, heightening the horror, deeming it fitting that that man's children should become wanderers and exiles.

'For let his children,' he says, 'be tossed to and fro and driven into exile, and let them beg.'

That is to say, may they not stand still in their wandering, nor obtain the necessary food, nor cease continually to change from place to place, being driven and pursued throughout all the earth, and finding nowhere a place to stand.

And along with these things he imprecates poverty upon them also, and utmost and unbearable poverty, so that they should not even obtain help from their kinsfolk, but go about begging it from strangers and unknown persons.

And hear how, in declaring this, he sets it forth.

'Let his children be driven into exile, and let them beg'; he goes on to add:

'Let them be cast out of their homesteads, and let the creditor search out all that belongs to him, and let strangers plunder the fruit of his labours.'

This is another kind of calamity: that their goods should be given over to plunder, and that they should endure the plots of creditors, and be maltreated in every way, and, what is more grievous still, that amid so many evils they should be bereft of any protector;

and this too he imprecates, saying:

Let there be none to help him.

For the evils in themselves are unbearable;

but when he has no one to stand up for him, they are far more grievous.

Neither let there be any to have compassion on his orphans.

What a magnitude of wrath, when not even the untimeliness of orphanhood meets with mercy, and not only fails to obtain mercy, but is also wrapped about with utter destruction!

'For let his children,' he says, 'be given over to utter extermination.'

'In a single generation may his name be blotted out.'

Do you see a word laden with wrath, and nowhere coming to a stand? For he prays that they should live amid varied and manifold calamity, and be handed over to complete ruin, and perish without a name.

And as though the calamity of the children were not enough, he adds once more:

'May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered, and may the sin of his mother not be blotted out.'

'May they be before the Lord continually, and may their memorial be cut off from the earth.'

For this above all belongs to wrath: to break into pieces the calamities he had spoken of in general, and continually to turn the same things over and over.

For having said, 'May the iniquity of his fathers be remembered,' he added:

yet nevertheless his wrath prompted him to say both things:

and what he means to say is this:

'Kill him, slay him, do away with him.'

Do you see the multitude of the curse? But, if you will, let me reckon them up once more from the beginning.

'May he fall in with wicked men,' he says, 'may he be accused, may he be seized by them, may he be condemned, may he undergo an untimely death, may he be cast out of his office, and may he see it transferred not to his descendants but to certain others.'

'may his wife perish, and the

children endure poverty, orphanhood, a life of begging; may they be condemned, driven out on every side, may they have no helper, may they fall away even from the goodwill of God, may there be for them no harbor nor refuge;

may his name be blotted out from the earth, may he perish nameless, and may his father and mother pay the penalty for the sins they committed;

and after him may they perish root and branch, utterly and prematurely destroyed.

Do not the things that have been said strike the hearer with amazement? Do you not long to hear who this man is that has been condemned in such a manner? For if, when we hear a man being reviled, we ask the bystanders to tell us who it is that is hearing such things,

much more, when we hear the prophet uttering these curses, is it necessary to learn—and to learn with fear and with a chastened mind—who it is that has fallen into anger so severe, who it is that has grieved the Holy Spirit, so as to hear of so many and so great kinds of sufferings.

Therefore, if it seems good, let us recite the psalm from the beginning with great attention.

For I will make the exposition with all exactness, so far as I am able.

For what is under inquiry is no small matter;

but first and foremost, this: on what account, when he alone had sinned—this man who is thus cried out against—are his children punished along with him, and his wife, and his parents?

Second: who is the one uttering the curse?

Third: how the chief of the apostles shows that the psalm was spoken concerning Judas;

or rather, not the whole psalm, but a part of the psalm.

'For it is written,' he says, 'in the book of Psalms:'

'Let his habitation be made desolate, and let there be no one dwelling in his tents.'

But again this presents to us another question;

for both statements are not written in this psalm;

for which reason he did not say 'this psalm,' but 'the whole book.'

For indeed the words, 'Let his habitation be made desolate,' are in one place;

'May another take his office of oversight.'

But nevertheless Peter gathered both together into a single testimony.

Which Paul also does everywhere, as when he says:

'There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.'

'And this is my covenant with them, when I take away their sins.'

And what would one call that which has been said? A prophecy, or a curse? A prophecy in the form of a curse.

For indeed elsewhere too we shall find something of this kind:

Which is the very thing that Jacob also did.

For since it is necessary that hearers be profited by the things that befall others, the prophets fashion many of their prophecies after this manner, so that even by the very form of the utterance the fear that pertains to right conduct may be increased.

For it is not the same thing to say that such-and-such a person will suffer this and that, and to declare this very thing in the manner of one who is angered and enraged.

And that I am not asserting these things without warrant, I will make plain to you from the words of the prophets.

For Jacob, when he was about to die, said to his sons, 'Come together, and I will tell you what shall befall you in the last of the days';

and, being about to prophesy, from the very outset, as though seething with a kind of wrath, he begins his prophecy with a curse, speaking thus:

'Reuben, my firstborn, hard to bear and hard and self-willed, you have acted with insolence; boil not over like water';

prophesying his coming destruction in the manner of a curse.

So again, when he speaks good things, he relates them in the manner of a blessing, saying, 'May the Lord give you of the dew of heaven, and of the fatness of the earth.'

And yet this too is prophecy.

But that it is not the product of human passion is plain.

For his father too does this very same thing in the case of Canaan, saying:

that you may learn that God, taking the part of those who are wronged beforehand, proceeds against those who do the wrong.

And Christ likewise made use of some such manner, calling back rather by the form of prophecy and imitating one who laments, and saying:

'Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida!'

'Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets!'

Of whom is the psalm spoken? Some things concern Judas, the Spirit prophesying through David, but the rest concern others.

For this too is again a manner of prophecy.

And in many places we shall find it composed in this way, with the opening portions spoken concerning one person, and the remaining portions concerning another.

And that you may see this very thing from yet another quarter: when the Jews were entering into the land of promise, dividing the twelve tribes into twelve portions, the son of Nun was commanded by God to bless some and to curse others.

And the blessing and the curse were prophecies of things that were to come. For he said:

'Cursed shall you be in the city, cursed in the field';

and the tribes, composing countless such curses, completed a long discourse.

This same thing, then, may also be said here: that a prophecy has been composed in the manner of a curse, both announcing and foretelling the things that shall befall Judas, and then, after him, stirring up yet another theme, and standing against certain persons who rose up against the priesthood;

that we may learn how great an evil it is to rise up against the priests of God, and to employ deceit and injustice against them.

For the things that have been said are nothing other than a teaching concerning the things that shall befall those who wrong their neighbors, those who rise up in insurrection with deceit and a corrupted disposition against people who have done no wrong at all.

But if he deems it fitting that the children also be punished, do not be troubled, beloved;

for by 'children' he here means those who have shared in the wickedness of such persons.

For Scripture is accustomed to call 'children' both those who are so by kinship, and those who have lived together in wickedness, even though they are not children by nature, as when it says:

'You are the sons of the devil.'

And yet the Jews were not by nature sons of the devil.

For how could those who are clothed with flesh be sons of the bodiless one? But by their fellowship in wickedness they drew to themselves the kinship.

In this way he also casts them out from Abraham, saying:

'If you were Abraham's, you would do the works of Abraham.'

For that a son is not punished on account of his father, nor a father on behalf of his son, is surely plain to everyone.

And in the Law too this is shown to have been declared, unless indeed one should wrongly construe it;

and even then it is not on behalf of a son, but for one's own negligence, as in the case of Eli.

But if it seems good, let us also go over the psalm from the beginning.

'O God, do not pass over my praise in silence.'

But another interpreter says:

O God, be not silent at my praise.

That is to say, do not let the punishment pass by, but proceed against the things that have been done.

For you are the glorious one, the great and mighty one, able to set such things right.

For the mouth of the sinner and the mouth of the deceitful man have been opened against me.

They spoke against me with a deceitful tongue, and encircled me with words of hatred, and warred against me without cause.

In return for my loving them, they slandered me.

Do you see the extent of their wickedness? Do you see the fellowship of their conspiracy? Do you see their premeditation? For this above all provokes God, when those who pursue evil work it out of deliberation, and calculation, and much practised exercise.

For it is one thing to be tripped up, having been carried away and deceived;

another thing to make wickedness one's regular practice;

and yet another, the very greatest charge of all, when they even work evil against one who does no evil.

For to say, 'In return for my loving them, they slandered me,' shows nothing else than that toward a benefactor—one worthy to be loved and to receive kindly recompense—they displayed the very opposite.

Do you see his philosophic wisdom? Do you see his forbearance? Do you see his gentleness? Do you see the piety of his soul? 'I did not arm myself,' he says, 'nor did I draw up in battle array against them, but I fled to you for refuge;'

I called upon your alliance, your favouring aid, the greatest weapon, the help that cannot be overcome.

Then, having told of the matters concerning Judas—how he condemned himself, how he brought forth against himself the verdict of death, how he hanged himself, how his apostleship passed over to another—he takes up again the earlier theme.

For this too is a form of prophecy: to break off in the middle, to insert some piece of narrative, and after having gone through this, to return once more to what went before.

For the prophecy has been cast into shadow because of the perversity of the Jews.

At all events it hints, as I have already said, at a certain man who plotted against the priesthood in the times after the return from Babylon.

And those who are more diligent in study know this, having gone through the history.

And he prophesies great evils for such a man, foretelling desolation;

and he counts it fitting that every harbour be silted up against him, and that he obtain no long-suffering, nor loving-kindness, nor pardon.

But these things, as I have already said—and I will not cease to say it continually—seem indeed to be a curse;

yet it is a prophecy, showing how God is provoked when the priesthood is plotted against.

Then, word for word, he sets forth the calamities, and says:

Because he did not remember to show mercy.

And he persecuted the man who was poor and needy, and pierced in heart, that he might put him to death.

This is the height of savagery, this is great inhumanity—when someone not only plots against another, but even against one who is well able to melt him to mercy and to bend him to compassion.

For such a man has drifted into the ferocity of wild beasts—or rather, he has become even worse than they.

For in the beasts their savagery is according to nature;

but this man, honoured with reason, betrayed his nobility to wickedness.

And those beasts have a certain affection and tameness toward their own kind and kindred;

but these men did not even reverence the common bond of nature, but the very one whom they ought to have pitied and borne with and set upright, this one they thrust down and overthrew.

And he loved cursing, and it shall come upon him;

and he did not desire blessing, and it shall be far from him.

Since he had prayed down many calamities upon him, he shows that the beginning of these and their cause came not from himself, but from that other man—the one who by his deeds thrust away the favouring help that comes from God, and drew upon himself the God-sent blow.

And he clothed himself with cursing as with a garment, and it entered like water into his inward parts, and like oil into his bones.

Here he indicates both the vehemence of the blow and the permanence of the punishment, showing that for all men evils come from within and from their own resolve—men who by their deeds and their doings thrust away good things, but cast themselves into punishments.

Let it be to him as a garment which he wraps about himself, and as a girdle with which he continually girds himself.

And this he says, showing the unspeakable wrath of God that shall come upon such men.

Thus shall the evils hold them fast, so that they shall not have any change;

but it shall be fixed firmly upon them, and shall remain unshaken.

Then, showing that God punishes wickedness and corrects vice, and that such a sentence lies not against that one man alone but against all who are accountable for the things spoken, he added:

This is the work of those who slander me before the Lord.

That is to say, this is the punishment, this is the sentence upon those who set themselves against me, who plot against me, who war against me—and upon those who speak evil things against my soul.

So then, there is a reckoning even for words—and a most bitter reckoning.

Having thus completed his discourse concerning that man, he takes refuge once more in God for the help that comes from Him.

For he does not stop even at the punishment of those who plot against him, but showing that those who suffer evil both have an avenger for the wrongs done to them and themselves obtain much help, he goes on to say:

And You, O Lord, deal with me for Your name's sake.

Behold his gratitude, behold his humility!

And yet he had sufficient ground of pleading in the fact that he had suffered wrong; for this too may be seen in many places of the Scriptures, that those who suffer unjustly at the hands of men have greater ground of boldness for obtaining God's favor. But this man, letting go

the saying of this, and takes refuge in the loving-kindness of God alone, and says:

Deal with me for Your name's sake.

Not because I am worthy, but for Your own sake, because You are loving toward mankind and merciful.

And he spoke well, saying, For Your mercy is good.

For that of men is not such in many cases;

for there are cases where men use even this for harm and for ruin;

but God everywhere acts for what is profitable.

Deliver me, for I am poor and needy, and my heart is troubled within me.

Do you see him again asking to be saved, not as one worthy, nor as one righteous, but as one utterly overthrown, as one worn down, as one who has suffered countless evils? And my heart is troubled within me.

For such is the power of calamities;

it does not injure the body only, but also throws the soul into turmoil.

I am gone like a shadow when it declines; I am shaken off like locusts.

He speaks of the vehemence of the plotting of those who had wronged him, of the unspeakable ill-treatment, and again of the diligence shown by himself amid such things.

My knees are grown weak from fasting, and my flesh is changed for want of oil.

Do you see what weapons he furnishes against their plots and against their ill-treatment of him? And I became a reproach to them;

they looked upon me, they shook their heads.

Such are the minds of the wicked;

not only do they not give way when they see the righteous man intensifying his devotion, but they even revile and mock and trample upon him.

What then does this man do? He takes refuge in the invincible alliance, in the help that cannot be overcome, saying:

Help me, O Lord my God, and save me according to Your mercy.

And let them know that this is Your hand, and that You, O Lord, have done it.

What does it mean, That this is Your hand? That the alliance is Yours.

For I do not merely wish to be saved, but also that those men should learn by whom I was saved, so that my trophy may be doubled, my crown doubled, and my glory heightened.

They will curse, but You will bless.

Let those who rise up against me be put to shame, but Your servant will be glad.

From this he teaches the hearer a certain philosophy.

For he shows that even if they assail with countless curses, when God blesses there will be no harm from them, but the shame and the reproaches will be turned back upon themselves.

But Your servant will be glad in You.

Well did he say, In You, showing that from that source comes the gladness whence comes the supply of good things.

Henceforth nothing of my troubles will be able to disturb me, since the gladness that comes from You remains for me undiminished.

Let those who slander me be clothed with disgrace, and let them wrap themselves in their own shame as in a double cloak.

See again how he asks that they be handed over not to punishment alone, but to shame, to disgrace, so that it might become for them a lesson of correction and an occasion for change to what is better.

I will greatly give thanks to the Lord with my mouth, and in the midst of many I will praise Him.

For He stood at the right hand of the poor man, to save my soul from those who pursue it.

In return for all these things, then, he renders back to God as recompense his song of praise, his thanksgiving, his commendation, the proclaiming of His mighty deeds before all men, the becoming a herald, in the midst of the theatre, of the good things that had been granted to him.

For this is sacrifice, this is offering: to bear the benefactions of God continually in memory, to engrave them upon the mind, to proclaim them aloud with the mouth, and to make many the hearers of His good deeds.

For in this way he who has enjoyed the benefaction will receive the reward of his gratitude, and will draw down upon himself yet more of God's favour;

and those who hear will be made more earnest by what has happened to others, and will take the benefaction shown to others as a most powerful incentive to zeal for virtue.