Bellarmine on Psalm XLIV: Verse 14

Verse 14

And the daughters of Tyre with gifts, yea, all the rich among the people, shall entreat thy countenance.

Et filiae Tyri in muneribus vultum tuum deprecabuntur; omnes divites plebis.

Because he said (in verse 13):  “and him they shall adore,”namely, the Bridegroom, he also adds the Bride, so as to honour the Queen with gifts and prayers. “And the daughters of Tyre,” he says, “with gifts . . . shall entreat thy countenance,” that is, the daughters of the gentiles, formerly the enemies of thy Spouse, will be subjected to His dominion, and they will come to thee, to entreat thy countenance, not only with spoken prayers but with gifts and offerings. “All the rich among the people,” that is, as he spoke of the daughters of Tyre, meaning the chief amongst the more powerful, who are accustomed to be the wealthiest.  In this text, words need to be explained one by one. "And the daughters” is in Hebrew ubath, and the daughter, and this is the reading of Sts. Basil and Clement, and the Greek codex now has this. But St. Jerome and St. Augustine have; And the daughters. If we read: And the daughters of Tyre as meaning the city or people of Tyre, in the same way we say the daughters of Babylon or the daughters of Jerusalem; if we read And the daughters as meaning the women of the city of Tyre; this recalls the women rather than the men because he is addressing the Bride: for women are wont to have access in a more familiar manner to a queen than men have to a king. But if by bride we understand in this text not an actual woman but the Church, which includes men and women, then by daughters 

of Tyre may be understood all gentiles, male or female. The Hebrew word for Tyre is tsor and it is ambiguous: for it can signify tough or powerful as well as being the name of the city of Tyre. But the Septuagint translators chose Tyre as the meaning, and this interpretation was followed by the Latin interpreter; and all the Greek and Latin Fathers follow this, except forSt. Jerome in his epistle ad Principiam, where he prefers to read and explain the text as most valiant daughter. Furthermore, Tyre was a great and celebrated city of the gentiles, on the edges of the promised land and so the Prophet used this neighbouring city to represent all gentiles. “With gifts:” he uses the word gifts for the offerings which gentiles, converted to the faith, made for buildings and church decorations, in almsgiving for the poor, and similar good works. “Shall entreat thy countenance:” St. basil and certain others understand by the countenance of the Bride the head of the Church, that is, Christ; but a simpler interpretation is that the countenance of the Bride means the Church herself: for it is a Hebrew expression, to pray to the face or countenance of someone, meaning to pray for that person, as in I Kings xiii.: “I have not appeased the face of the Lord;”[1] and Psalm cxviii: “I entreated thy face.”[2] We are said to pray to a (person’s) face because when we pray to someone, we look at his face, and from the face we can read sorrow or happiness, and whether the person to whom we pray will be well-disposed or angry. “All the rich among the people:” this is by way of qualification, as though he were to say: The daughters of Tyre with gifts, shall entreat thy countenance; not all will have gifts, but only the rich (among them).

[1] I said: Now will the Philistines come down upon me to Galgal, and I have not appeased the face of the Lord. Forced by necessity, I offered the holocaust. dixi : Nunc descendent Philisthiim ad me in Galgala, et faciem Domini non placavi. Necessitate compulsus, obtuli holocaustum. [I Reg. xiii.12]

[2] I entreated thy face with all my heart: have mercy on me according to thy word. Deprecatus sum faciem tuam in toto corde meo; miserere mei secundum eloquium tuum. [Ps. Cxviii. 58]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.