Bellarmine on Psalm 94: Verse 10

Verse 10

Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.

Quadraginta annis offensus fui generationi illi; et dixi : Semper hi errant corde.

He explains more clearly the time of provocation and temptation in the desert. “Forty years long,” he says, “was I offended with that generation,” for the whole time in which I guided them through the desert, so as to lead them into the promised land, “I was offended with that generation,” that is, I was offended by them, or rather I was angry with them, as the Apostle explains in Hebr. iii. The Hebrew wording signifies I quarrelled with them, or I deprecated them: but it all amounts to the same thing, and in this sense is the reading in the Roman psaltery to be explained: “Forty years long was I close to that generation,” that is, I drew near to them so that I might hear their complaints close up, and that I might scourge them with various afflictions; and because from close by I saw and heard what they were doing and saying, “I said: These always err in heart,” that is, they are led by various desires and so 

 they err and stray from the right way of salvation. The Apostle in Hebrews iii puts it differently: “They proved,” he says, “and saw my works, forty years: for which cause I was offended with this generation.”[1] But because neither the Hebrews, nor the Greeks, nor the Latins make this distinction, the Apostle may be said to have wanted to declare the words (purpose) of this Psalm and therefore to have added the words “for which cause,” so that the meaning is: They saw my works, for forty years, for which cause I was offended with this generation.

[1] Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation; in the day of temptation in the desert, Where your fathers tempted me, proved and saw my works, Forty years: for which cause I was offended with this generation, and I said: They always err in heart. And they have not known my ways, As I have sworn in my wrath: If they shall enter into my rest. nolite obdurare corda vestra, sicut in exacerbatione secundum diem tentationis in deserto, ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri : probaverunt, et viderunt opera mea, quadraginta annis : propter quod infensus fui generationi huic, et dixi : Semper errant corde. Ipsi autem non cognoverunt vias meas, sicut juravi in ira mea : Si introibunt in requiem meam. [Hebr. iii. 8-11]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.