Bellarmine on Psalm 94 : Verse 4

Verse 4

For in his hand are all the ends of the earth: and the heights of the mountains are his.

quia in manu ejus sunt omnes fines terrae, et altitudines montium ipsius sunt;

The second of the (five) reasons is that the Lord has in His power the whole world, in its length, its breadth and its height; hence all who inhabit the earth are subject to Him and owe Him a sacrifice of praise. “For,” he says, “in his hand,” that is, in His power, “are all the ends of the earth,” that is, the whole of the world, even to its uttermost limits. “And the heights of the mountains are his,” that is, not

only the length and the breadth but also the height, as far as the tops of the highest mountains, are subject to His authority. In an ancient codex, from which this Psalm is read commonly throughout the Church, the following line is placed before this verse: “For the Lord will not cast off his people,”[1] and these words are read and explained by Sts. Jerome and Augustine in Commentario Psalmorum. But these words are not found in the Hebrew and Greek codices, or in the Latin Vulgate edition, and in this text they seem indeed to be unnecessary; but they are found in the previous Psalm (xciii) and they have been transplanted here; it is not possible to doubt they are most true. In the same antique codex may be read: “and he beholdeth the heights of the mountains,” instead of “and the heights of the mountains are his.” But in the Greek and the Hebrew it has the mountains are his and the Fathers read it in this way. Besides, this reading: “and he beholdeth the heights of the mountains,” means nothing other than that the Lord is higher than the highest mountain, so that He can easily look upon those things that are at the top of the highest mountains, whither no man has ever penetrated. In Hebrew, instead of the ends of the earth, it has investigations of the earth, from a word which means to investigate, and to search. From this, some a reference to the deep caverns of the earth, in contrast to the heights of the mountains, so that the sense is: In God’s hand are both the deepest and the highest parts of the earth. St. Jerome translates it as: In whose hand are the foundations of the earth, and the heights of the mountains are His, with which reading the Greek and Latin may be harmonised if by fines terrae / ends of the earth we understand the ends as referring to depth and not to length or breadth; but either meaning is true.

[1] For the Lord will not cast off his people: neither will he forsake his own inheritance. Quia non repellet Dominus plebem suam, et haereditatem suam non derelinquet : [Ps. xciii. 14]. 6]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.