aka the Psalms Blog. A blog on Scripture in line with the "new exegetical movement" proposed by Pope Benedict XVI, with a particular focus on the psalms.
Ecce (behold)
sic (as) benedicétur (he shall be blessed) homo (the man) qui (who ) timet (he
fears) Dóminum (the Lord)
benedico, dixi,
dictum, ere 3 to bless, with dat.
or ace; to praise, bless, give thanks to (God); to be wellpleased with, to take
pleasure in
homo, inis,
m (1) man, a human being. (2) mortal man as compared with God. (3) man, person,
individual
DR
Behold, thus shall the man be blessed that fears the Lord.
Brenton
Behold, thus shall the man
be blessed that fears the Lord.
MD
Behold, so shall the man be
blessed, who feareth the Lord.
RSV
Lo, thus shall the man be
blessed who fears the LORD.
Cover
Lo, thus shall the man be
blessed that feareth the Lord.
Knox
Let a man serve the Lord,
such is the blessing that awaits him.
Grail
Indeed thus shall be
blessed the man who fears the Lord.
Notwithstanding the Knox translation, 'Ecce sic benedicetur' is arguably best interpreted as part of a blessing formula rather than an admonition to serve the Lord; it is a statement about the consequences of our orientation towards the Lord.
Cassiodorus notes that this verse of the psalm opens a new section:
He passes to the second section, in which with the most holy devotion he asks for a benediction on those fired to every good exertion by fear of the Lord. This is to make us realise how profitable is this fear over which the holy blessing is redoubled.
He suggests that this verse points to:
...the perfect end of the blessed man who fears the Lord. The words: Thus shall every man be blessed, as was clearly explained earlier, means "Thus shall every man deserve to be blessed who fears his Maker, who ceases to tremble at empty threats, who is filled with chaste fear of the Lord." Observe the order of words. He begins with: Behold, thus shall every man be blessed, and so that wanton fools should not appropriate this blessing, he added: That feareth the Lord.
Psalm 127
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1 Beáti omnes, qui timent Dóminum,* qui ámbulant in viis ejus.
Blessed are all they that fear theLord: that walk in his ways.
2 Labóres mánuum tuárum quia manducábis: * beátus es, et bene tibi erit.
2 For you shall eat the labours of your hands:blessedare you, and it shall be well with you.
3 Uxor tua sicut vitis abúndans: * in latéribus domus tuæ.
3 Your wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of your house.
4 Fílii tui sicut novéllæ olivárum: * in circúitu mensæ tuæ.
Your children as olive plants, round about your table.
Fílii tui sicut
novéllæ olivárum: * in circúitu mensæ tuæ.
JH
filii tui sicut germina oliuarum in circuitu mensae tuae.
σουοἱυἱοίσουὡςνεόφυταἐλαιῶνκύκλῳτῆςτραπέζηςσου
Fílii (the sons/children) tui (of you) sicut (like) novéllæ (new)
olivárum (of the olives trees): * in circúitu (around) mensæ (of the table) tuæ
(your)
filius, ii,
m. a son, child
novellus, a,
m. young, new
oliva, ae, the olive
tree.
circuitus, us, Used chiefly in the phrase "in
circuitu," round about.
mensa, ae, a table.
DR
Your children as olive plants,
round about your table.
Brenton
Thy children as young
olive-plants round about thy table.
MD
Thy children like young
olive trees, round thy board.
RSV
Your children will be like
olive shoots around your table.
Cover
Thy children like the olive branches round about thy
table.
Knox
The children round thy
table sturdy as olive-branches.
Grail
Your children like shoots
of the olive, around your table.
It should be noted that the translations all use the term children, though strictly speaking filii means sons. This follows a long line of interpretation though: Cassiodorus, for example, notes that the word sons should be viewed as inclusive, covering daughters as well:
When the psalmist says elsewhere: Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord, it is not just the man that fears the Lord that is blessed; the woman too who fears the Lord is blessed.
More generally though, while this verse could be seen as simply pointing to a happy family life, the fathers also see it as extending the metaphors relating to the image of the Church. St Augustine, for example, cites St Matthew to demonstrate that the Church is both spouse and child of Christ.
In the words of the
Lord, we find the Church to be both His brethren, and His sisters, and His
mother.. ..For Mary was among the sides of His House, and His relatives coming
of the kindred of the Virgin Mary, who believed on Him, were among the sides of
His House; not in respect of their carnal consanguinity, but inasmuch as they
heard the Word of God, and obeyed it....He added; For whosoever shall do the will
of My Father which is in heaven, the same is My brother, and sister, and
mother. Brother, perhaps, on
account of the male sex whom the Church has: sister, on account of the women
whom Christ has here in His members. How mother, save that Christ Himself is in
those Christians, whom the Church daily brings forth Christians through baptism?
In those therefore in whom you understand the wife, in them you understand the
mother, in them the children...
The image of young olive trees, St Cassiodorus explains, reflects the traditional importance of this plant:
it is because they are greener, more vigorous, and extremely strong in every way, and they bear fruit more abundantly. This fruit provides stores of food, and kindles light, and relieves tired bodies.
He adds that the images of these two verses are closely related:
Do not imagine that the combination of olive and vine in these comparisons is accidental. We read that the man wounded by robbers in the gospel was healed by the application of wine and oil, for these two provide sacramental protection of our life. Wine contains the severity of justice, oil the gentleness of mercy; the first can match the Old Testament, the second the New.
The phrase around your table, Cassiodorus argues, alludes to the sacrament of the Eucharist:
So they surround the spiritual table which is the Lord's altar, for they are filled with the bread of heaven.
Psalm 127
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1 Beáti omnes, qui timent Dóminum,* qui ámbulant in viis ejus.
Blessed are all they that fear theLord: that walk in his ways.
2 Labóres mánuum tuárum quia manducábis: * beátus es, et bene tibi erit.
2 For you shall eat the labours of your hands:blessedare you, and it shall be well with you.
3 Uxor tua sicut vitis abúndans: * in latéribus domus tuæ.
3 Your wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of your house.
4 Fílii tui sicut novéllæ olivárum: * in circúitu mensæ tuæ.
Your children as olive plants, round about your table.
Santa Maria in Trastevere: Christ and Maria Ecclesia enthroned
The third verse of Psalm 127 can of course be interpreted literally, as about the Christian family. But in the context of the monastic Office in particular, the interpretation the Fathers give to it, as referring to Christ and his Church, is surely the interpretative key we should focus on.
3
V
Uxor tua sicut
vitis abúndans: * in latéribus domus tuæ.
NV
Uxor tua sicut vitis fructifera in lateribus domus tuae;
JH
Uxor tua sicut uitis fructifera in penetrabilibus domus tuae :
Uxor (the
wife) tua (your) sicut (like) vitis (the grapevine) abúndans (abundant): * in
latéribus (on the side) domus (the house) tuæ (your)
uxor, oris, a
wife.
vitis, is, a
vine, grapevine
abundans, overflowing,
full, abounding, overflowing, abundant, more than enough
latus, eris, n.,
theside or flank of men or animals; The side or lateral
surface of a thing.
domus, us, a house,
structure, abode, dwelling place. the inmates of ahouse,
a family, household.
DR
Your wife as a fruitful
vine, on the sides of your house.
Brenton
Thy wife shall be as a
fruitful vine on the sides of thy house:
MD
Thy wife is like a fruitful
vine on the walls of thy house.
RSV
Your wife will be like a
fruitful vine within your house;
Cover
Thy wife shall be as the
fruitful vine upon the walls of thine house
Knox
Thy wife shall be fruitful
as a vine, in the heart of thy home,
Grail
The wife like a fruitful
vine in the heart of your house;
The translations
The Vulgate (and neo-Vulgate), following the Septuagint, compare a good wife to a fruitful vine adorning the side of the house.
A number of the early twentieth century commentaries, however, latched on to this verse as a kind of anti-feminist proof-text, and suggested that the Vulgate misrepresents the Hebrew word יְרֵכָה (yĕrekah), which should be interpreted as ‘within the house’, since the ideal good fertile wife keeps seclusion, citing Proverbs 9:13-14 in support of the claim. Both the RSV, Grail and Knox translations reflect this approach.
According to Ladouceur's notes on the verse, however, yerekah can mean side, rearside, and access at the rear as well as innermost part. Moreover the other Scriptural uses of the word refer to the staves placed on the outside of the Ark (Exodus 25:14, 37:5) and someone addressing a person clearly outside the house (Amos 6:10).
The idea of the wife visibly adorning the house, in other words, is perfectly fine.
And this is one of those cases where changing the translation renders some of the Patristic translations incomprehensible.
The wife is the Church
This issue becomes all the more important when one considers that the traditional interpretation of the psalm proposed by the Fathers in fact interprets the wife in question not just as that of a normal family, but also as the Church, as the spouse of Christ. St Augustine for example says:
Let us now come to the words, Your
wife: it is said unto Christ. His wife,
therefore, is the Church, His Church, His wife, we ourselves are.
Another possible interpretation, proposed by Cassiodorus is that wife here should be interpreted as a reference to holy wisdom:
Wife is used in the sense of sister; so we must interpret wife here as the wisdom of the blessed man. As Solomon says: He who has desired to take wisdom as his spouse, and elsewhere: Love her, and she will embrace thee.' So she is the wife of the just who grasps her husband in chaste embrace.
Either way, the Fathers and Theologians were conscious of the dangers of an overly literal interpretation of this verse. Cassiodorus says:
We must likewise avoid the literal interpretation here too, for you observe that numerous holy men do not have wives and children, and again that wicked men possess all these things. So how can you associate things often withdrawn from good men and assigned instead to the wicked with this aspect of blessedness which has been described?
Similarly St Robert Bellarmine, while noting the virtues and blessing of a large family goes on to comment that:
This, to be sure, is a blessing to a certain extent; but, to give us to understand that it is not so very great a blessing, God was pleased to withhold it from many of his most faithful and devoted friends in the married state, such as Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, Zachary and Elizabeth; and he also inspired many with a resolution of observing holy virginity, such as it is credibly believed of the holy prophets Elias and Jeremias, and is well known of the Blessed Virgin, St John Baptist, St. Joseph, and hosts besides, who certainly would not have been deprived of the happiness had not virginity been a much superior gift.
With that, those saints who never married, or had no offspring, if they had no family in one sense they had in another, far and away beyond it. Christ, for instance, who is the head of all the saints, was never married, had no children in the flesh, yet he had the Church for his spouse, and children in the spirit, nearly innumerable. So with Abraham, who had only one child by Sara, and yet, by faith, was made the father of many nations; for all the faithful are called "children of Abraham" by the apostle.
And what is more wonderful, these holy men are not only the fathers, but they are even the mothers of those whom they have brought to the faith, or to penance; for they are their fathers by reason of their preaching to them by word and example, and they are their mothers by reason of their praying and sighing for them. The same apostle calls himself father when he says, "I write not these things to shame you, but I admonish you as my dearest children; for, if you have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers. For in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the Gospel;" and he calls himself their mother in another place, where he says, "My little children, of whom I am in labor again."
The fruitful vine
If we interpret the wife as the Church though, how do we reconcile the verse with the often very tarnished public image of the Church? St Augustine tackles this issue head on, arguing that even when the vine withers in places, it is fruitful in others:
But in whom is the vineyard fruitful? For we see many barren ones
entering those walls; we see that many intemperate, usurious persons, slave
dealers, enter these walls, and such as resort to fortune-tellers, go to
enchanters and enchantresses when they have a headache. Is this the
fruitfulness of the vine? Is this the fecundity of the wife? It is not. These
are thorns, but the vineyard is not everywhere thorny. It has a certain
fruitfulness, and is a fruitful vine; but in whom?
Nonetheless, even when all too many in the Church are thorns rather than fruitful, when even the highest in it are given over to scandalous behaviour, she remains the source of grace through the sacraments. Accordingly, Cassiodorus argues:
The vine is the begetter of grapes, pouring forth sweet wine and reviving our hearts; in the same way this wife, which is wisdom, contributes glad fruits and brings joy to us with sweet delight.
The house we cling to is Christ
The Fathers made considerable play on the either that the walls of the Church hold us up, hold the vine and train it to go where it should. Cassiodorus for example suggests that:
The walls of this house are the two Testaments, affording the pious mind the strength and solidity of outside walls.
St Augustine reminds us of the fundamental point though:
Not all are called the sides of the house. For I ask what are the sides. What shall I say? Are they walls, strong stones, as it were? If he were speaking of this bodily tenement, we should perhaps understand this by sides. We mean by the sides of the house, those who cling unto Christ....
Psalm 127
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1 Beáti omnes, qui timent Dóminum,* qui ámbulant in viis ejus.
Blessed are all they that fear theLord: that walk in his ways.
2 Labóres mánuum tuárum quia manducábis: * beátus es, et bene tibi erit.
2 For you shall eat the labours of your hands:blessedare you, and it shall be well with you.
3 Uxor tua sicut vitis abúndans: * in latéribus domus tuæ.
3 Your wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of your house.
4 Fílii tui sicut novéllæ olivárum: * in circúitu mensæ tuæ.
Your children as olive plants, round about your table.
The second verse of Psalm 127 takes to one of those key recurrent themes in St Benedict's Rule, namely the value of work.
The Rule famously makes an important place for manual work and work in service of the community. But while St Benedict generally prescribes work as a remedy against idleness and boredom, it is 'the Work of God', the liturgy that builds up the Church, that takes pride of place in the Rule.
And the reference in the Prologue of the Rule to God calling for workers in his vineyard is surely linked in large part to this, given the connection between the hours at which the Master calls for workers, and the hours of the Office, a connection pointed out by St John Cassian.
The recitation of this verse on weekdays, then, can be seen as a reminder of this key aspect of the Benedictine charism.
2
V
Labóres mánuum
tuárum quia manducábis: * beátus es, et bene tibi erit.
NV
Labores manuum tuarum manducabis, beatus es, et bene tibi erit.
JH
Laborem manuum tuarum cum comederis, beatus tu, et bene tibi erit.
Labóres
(works/labours) mánuum (of the hands) tuárum (your) quia (which/for) manducábis (you
will eat): * beátus (blessed) es (you are), et (and) bene (well) tibi (to you) erit
(it will be).
labor, oris,
m.,work, labor,
toil, effort; also the results of one's labor, produce, possessions,
etc.
manus, us,
/.,the hand
manduco, avi,
atum, are to eat.
bene, adv. well; rightly, uprightly.
DR
For you shall eat the
labours of your hands: blessed
are you, and it shall be well with you.
Brenton
Thou shalt eat the labours
of thy hands: blessed art thou, and it shall be well with thee.
MD
Thou shalt enjoy what thy
hands earned: blessed art thou, it shall be well with thee!
RSV
You shall eat the fruit of
the labor of your hands; you shall be happy,
and it shall be well with
you.
Cover
For thou shalt eat the labours of thine hands; O
well is thee, and happy shalt thou be.
Knox
Thyself shall eat what thy
hands have toiled to win; blessed thou art; all good shall be thine.
Grail
By the labor of your hands
you shall eat. You will be happy and prosper;
Living from our own work
At the literal level, the second verse of Psalm 127, which speaks of us being blessed by being able to live on the results of our own work, which can apply to all, but has a particular connotation for monastics, for St Benedict speaks early in the Rule of God calling us to be labourers in his vineyard, and later reminds his monks that:
And if the circumstances of the place or their poverty should require that they themselves do the work of gathering the harvest, let them not be discontented; for then are they truly monastics when they live by the labor of their hands, as did our Fathers and the Apostles.
St Robert Bellarmine teaches us that it is appropriate for us to seek what is adequate and necessary, but we should reject riches:
Here we should reflect that the Prophet does not make happiness to consist in great riches, but in such as have been acquired by the labor of one's hands, and they are, generally speaking, moderate. Great riches either come by inheritance, or from plunder or usury, or some other bad source. St. Jerome quotes an old saying, and a true one, "The rich man is either a rogue or the heir of a rogue;"...Holy David then addresses not only the Jews, but all Christians, when he makes happiness to consist not in great riches, but in a sufficiency; the having wherewithal to live by one's just labor; and he censures two extremes — one, that of those who live on the others entirely; and the other, that of those who will not touch the labor of their hands, but, in a spirit of avarice, put it aside to increase their riches.
But what about when we can't earn a living?
We have to be careful about reading this verse too literally, however: God does not guarantee us properity in this life, as St Robert Bellarmine reminds us:
It may happen, however, that some "who fear God," and "walk in his ways," may not be able to eat of the "labors of their hands," and have to endure hunger and thirst, by reason of their having been despoiled, or defrauded of their labor; but that will not bar the promise made in this passage; for if God sometimes lets his friends down so low that they would be glad to satisfy the cravings of their hunger with the fragments that fall from the table of the rich, as was the case with Lazarus, he will certainly give them something better, far better, instead; and that is joy from tribulation...This is peculiarly applicable to the pilgrims, who "rejoice in the tribulation" of want and difficulties; "for they know tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope, and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured out into our hearts."
The promise of the verse, he argues, relates to the hereafter.
The eternal fruits of our labour
Indeed, our true work in this world is not about earning the necessities of life, but rather the work of of building up the Church. Cassiodorus for example says:
But by labours he wished to denote good works carried out in this world to yield a sweet banquet as the reward to come; for eating means being refreshed by some food, and rejoicing in its abundance. So these labours which consist of good works are apprehended at the resurrection when these words are heard: Come ye, blessed of my Father, possess you the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. A blessed banquet this, which is not digested by the stomach, but is maintained in eternity unconsumed.
Psalm 127
Vulgate
Douay-Rheims
Canticum graduum.
1 Beáti omnes, qui timent Dóminum,* qui ámbulant in viis ejus.
Blessed are all they that fear theLord: that walk in his ways.
2 Labóres mánuum tuárum quia manducábis: * beátus es, et bene tibi erit.
2 For you shall eat the labours of your hands:blessedare you, and it shall be well with you.
3 Uxor tua sicut vitis abúndans: * in latéribus domus tuæ.
3 Your wife as a fruitful vine, on the sides of your house.
4 Fílii tui sicut novéllæ olivárum: * in circúitu mensæ tuæ.
Your children as olive plants, round about your table.
