Bellarmine on Psalm 94: Verse 11 (conclusion)

Verse 11

And these men have not known my ways: so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest.

Et isti non cognoverunt vias meas : ut juravi in ira mea : Si introibunt in requiem meam.

He explains why they should have so erred, because they “have not known my ways,” that is, my laws, which are straight pathways, and those who follow them cannot go astray : He is speaking about not simply knowing of them but knowing and following them. “So I swore in my wrath,” meaning they have not arrived at rest, and so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into my rest. The sense is : These men, who are always going astray in their hearts, have not known my ways, which lead to rest; and for this reason, they have not arrived at rest, “so I swore in my wrath that they shall not enter into it,” that is, they shall not enter into my rest. By “rest” is understood, in the historical sense, the land of promise, in which only a tiny number entered of those who left Egypt, as the Lord swore to them in Numbers xiv : “As I live, saith the Lord: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you. In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie.”[1] In an anagogical[2] sense, according to the witness of the Apostle in Hebrews iv, it refers to the heavenly homeland, where perfect peace will be found. God’s oath signifies that the thing is most certain and immutable. The Hebrew has a word which can correctly be translated as ut / so that, as, rather than quibus / unto whom. In Greek it has ώ;, as in the Greek version of the St. Paul’s epistle to the Hebrews : but in the Latin version of the same chapter iii, it has quibus juravi / unto whom I swore; but in chapter iv it has sicut juravi / as I swore. In the Roman Psaltery and in St. Augustine it has, quibus juravi / unto whom I swore. The sense is still the same; but the more common reading is the one found in the Vulgate, and this is the Apostle’s reading when he correctly cites the words of the Psalm, saying : “As he said: As I have sworn,”[3] etc.

[1] Say therefore to them: As I live, saith the Lord: According as you have spoken in my hearing, so will I do to you. In the wilderness shall your carcasses lie. All you that were numbered from twenty years old and upward, and have murmured against me, Dic ergo eis : Vivo ego, ait Dominus : sicut locuti estis audiente me, sic faciam vobis. In solitudine hac jacebunt cadavera vestra. Omnes qui numerati estis a viginti annis et supra, et murmurastis contra me. [Numbersxiv. 28-29]

[1] Mystical or spiritual interpretation; an Old Testament typification of something in the New. Etymology: < Latin anagōgē, < Greek ἀναγωγή elevation, religious or ecstatic elevation, mystical sense; < ἀνάγειν to lead up, lift up, elevate. OED. 

[1] For we, who have believed, shall enter into rest; as he said: As I have sworn in my wrath; If they shall enter into my rest; and this indeed when the works from the foundation of the world were finished. Ingrediemur enim in requiem, qui credidimus : quemadmodum dixit : Sicut juravi in ira mea : Si introibunt in requiem meam : et quidem operibus ab institutione mundi perfectis. [Hebr. iv. 3]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.