Bellarmine on Psalm LXXXVI: Verses 3 & 4

Verses 3 & 4

I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me. Behold the foreigners, and Tyre, and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there.

Memor ero Rahab et Babylonis, scientium me; ecce alienigenae, et Tyrus, et populus Aethiopum, hi fuerunt illic.

The prophet now praises the holy city for the number and variety of nations who have come to live there; for not only are Jews, as in the old Testament, present in Jerusalem; but all nations were toi inhabit the Catholic Church, which is the true Jerusalem, praised in this Psalm. He mentions by name Rahab, Babylon, Palestinians, Tyre and Ethiopians, which were nations of the gentiles, but known to the Jews. By Rahab, the ancient writers Jerome, Augustine, Theodoretus, Enthymius and others, understand as referring to that harlot called Rahab, who saved the spies Joshua sent to Jericho, as is recorded for us in Josue ii. More recent commentators rightly refer that harlot to Rachab, in the Hebrew and Greek versions, which has an aspiration : by Raab  they understand 

Egypt, or the king of Egypt; for the Hebrew word means proud, and it is translated thus in Ps. lxxxviii and in Isai. li., and in each text the writers understand the word proud to refer to Egypt. The sense will therefore be : “I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon knowing me,” that is, I, God, the founder of the city of Jerusalem, in calling and enrolling the chosen citizens of Jerusalem, I shall remember not only the Jews but also the Egyptians and the Babylonians, who know me by way of faith and religious worship.  “For behold the foreigners,” that is, the Palestinians, “and Tyre,” that is, the people of Tyre, “and the people of the Ethiopians, these were there,” that is, these people too, calling to me and coming to me, will be in the holy city of Jerusalem. He uses the præterite tense for the future, after the usage of Prophets. In Hebrew, instead of scientium me / (of) knowing me, it has scientibus me / to those knowing me, and the Greek has the same. But the

Hebrew article here takes not only the dative but also the genitive and the accusative, as grammarians teach. Quære if we wish to follow the Greek, it will not be translated as : I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon, but : I will remember Raab and Babylon, knowing me, that is, faithful to me. But because the Latin translator interprets, as he is allowed,  I will be mindful of Rahab and of Babylon, he rightly adds, knowing me, and this is the ancient reading of the Latin writers, as is clear from St. Jerome’s Commentary on this Psalm. The words these were there are rendered in Hebrew as he was born there. The Greek has the plural, these were born there, and the sense is the same, each one of them was born there. The Latin interpretation must be explained as follows, these were there, that is, all these peoples were numbered, whether in Jerusalem through a new generation  : for through ancient generation they were citizens of Egypt, or Babylon, or Tyre, or Palestine, or Ethiopia; but through a new generation, they are reborn from God through Christ, and they will all be citizens of that one holy city Jerusalem, “Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all.”[1]

[1] Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all. ubi non est gentilis et Judaeus, circumcisio et praeputium, Barbarus et Scytha, servus et liber : sed omnia, et in omnibus Christus. [Coloss. iii. 11]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.