Psalm 140 v8 - The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church

 Today's verse of Psalm 140 is another that is hard to understand by just looking at the words; we have to do some work to get at the true meaning.

Looking at the Latin 

8	V	Audient verba mea quoniam potuerunt: * sicut crassitudo terræ erupta est super terram.
	OR	audient verba mea quoniam potuerunt sicut crassitudo terrae eructuat super terram
	NV	audient verba mea, quoniam suavia erant. Sicut frusta dolantis et dirumpentis in terra,
	JH	et audient uerba mea, quoniam decora sunt. Sicut agricola cum scindit terram,
	Sept	ἀκούσονται τὰ ῥήματά μου ὅτι ἡδύνθησαν ὡσεὶ πάχος γῆς διερράγη ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς

 [Key: V=Vulgate; OR=Old Roman; NV=Neo-Vulgate; JH=St Jerome's translation from the Hebrew; Sept=Septuagint]

Phrase by phrase 

Audient verba mea quoniam potuerunt: sicut crassitudo terræ erupta est super terram.

They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground

 Word by word 

Audient (they shall hear) verba (words) mea (my) quoniam (as/because) potuerunt (they are powerful/they shall prevail): sicut (just as) crassitudo (a clod) terræ (of earth) erupta est (is broken up) super (on) terram (the ground). 

Key vocabulary 

possum, potui, posse (1) to be able, to have power (2) to prevail, attain
crassitudo – inis f thickness, a clod
erumpo ere rupi ruptum (3) to break up, crush 

It should be noted that St John Chrysostom supplies several different text variants for the second phrase, which Robert Hill translates variously as: 

• As thickness of earth is smashed on the ground, our bones were scat­tered near Hades;
• Like a farmer harrowing the soil, so our bones were scattered in the mouth of Hades;
• Like someone breaking up and cleaving the soil, our bones were cast into Hades; and
• Like someone improving and digging up the soil, our bones were scattered near Hades.

Selected English translations

DR	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
Brenton	they shall hear my words, for they are sweet. As a lump of earth is crushed upon the ground
MD	They shall hear that my words have prevailed: as clods of earth thrown upon the ground.
RSV	then they shall learn that the word of the LORD is true. As a rock which one cleaves and shatters on the land,
Cover	that they may hear my words, for they are sweet.
Knox	a people whose bones lie scattered at the grave’s mouth, like seed when the earth is cloven into furrows
Grail	then they understood that my words were kind. As a millstone is shattered to pieces on the ground

 [Key: DR=Douay-Rheims Challoner; MD=Monastic Diurnal; RSV=Revised Standard Version; Cover=Coverdale]

The truth will prevail

The first half of the verse can be read as a statement that ultimately, many who reject Christ, or twist his meanings into heresy will eventually be converted.  St Jerome puts it thus:

The Lord himself says: They who came to me were won over, and they delighted in my words and were converted to me in my Church. 

Similarly, St Augustine argues it means that the truth will win out in the end, over the clever lies and conceits of those who work evil:

My Words have prevailed over their words. They have spoken clever things, I true things. To praise one who talks well is one thing, to praise One who speaks truth is another. 

Ploughing stone hearts

The key question is, though, what brings about this change of heart?

There are several different interpretations of this part of the verse, depending on whether you see it as connected to what came before, or what comes next.

St Robert Bellarmine's explanation is the most simple and compelling I think, seeing it as an analogy to the farmer plowing hard soil in order to make it ready to be planted:

An allusion to “My prayer also shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased;” by which he gives us to understand that many unfortunate souls, who prided themselves on their sins, would hear his words, and be converted to God through them; for as the hardest soil is entered by the plough, so the heart of man, however hardened it may be, will be entered and stirred up by the power and the efficacy of the word of God. Those poor souls, already alluded to, will hear my words; for these words were most effectual in moving them; as effectual as a spade or a plough, to enter into and turn up the thick, sluggish clay. 

St Augustine ties the verse to what follows, seeing the reference in the next verse to 'our bones' lying on ground as carrying forward the farming analogy to the martyrs as fertiliser for the Church:

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Fear not those who kill the body, etc. He gave them fear, He suggested hope, He kindled love. Fear not death, He says. Do ye fear death? I die first. Fear ye, lest a hair of your head perish? I first rise again in the flesh uninjured. Rightly have ye heard His Words, for they have prevailed. They spoke, and were slain; they fell, and yet stood. 

And what was the result of so many deaths of martyrs, save that those words prevailed, and the earth being, so to speak, watered by the blood of Christ's witnesses, the cross of the Church shot up everywhere? How have they prevailed? We have said already, when they were preached by men who feared not. Feared not what? Neither banishment, nor losses, nor death, nor crucifixion: for it was not death alone that they did not fear; but even crucifixion, a death than which none was thought more accursed. It the Lord endured, that His disciples might not only not fear death, but not even that kind of death. When then these things are said by men that fear not, they have prevailed.

Vulgate	Douay-Rheims
Psalmus David.	A psalm of David.
1 Dómine, clamávi ad te, exáudi me: * inténde voci meæ, cum clamávero ad te.	I have cried to you, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to you.
2  Dirigátur orátio mea sicut incénsum in conspéctu tuo: * elevátio mánuum meárum sacrifícium vespertínum.	2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in your sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3  Pone, Dómine, custódiam ori meo: * et óstium circumstántiæ lábiis meis.	Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4  Non declínes cor meum in verba malítiæ: * ad excusándas excusatiónes in peccátis.	4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins.
5  Cum homínibus operántibus iniquitátem: * et non communicábo cum eléctis eórum	With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them
6  Corrípiet me justus in misericórdia, et increpábit me: * óleum autem peccatóris non impínguet caput meum.	5 The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head.
7  Quóniam adhuc et orátio mea in beneplácitis eórum: * absórpti sunt juncti petræ júdices eórum.	For my prayer shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased: 6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up.
8  Audient verba mea quóniam potuérunt: * sicut crassitúdo terræ erúpta est super terram.	They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed: 7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground:
9  Dissipáta sunt ossa nostra secus inférnum: * quia ad te, Dómine, Dómine, óculi mei: in te sperávi, non áuferas ánimam meam.	Our bones are scattered by the side of hell. 8 But to you, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in you have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
10  Custódi me a láqueo, quem statuérunt mihi: * et a scándalis operántium iniquitátem.	9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumbling blocks of them that work iniquity.
11  Cadent in retiáculo ejus peccatóres: * singuláriter sum ego donec tránseam.	10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.

For the next part in this series on Psalm 140, continue on here.