Bellarmine on Psalm 119 : Verse 3

Verse 3

What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue?

Quid detur tibi, aut quid apponatur tibi ad linguam dolosam?

He gives the reason why he seeks to be delivered “from a deceitful tongue,” to wit, that it is such an evil that nothing can be added to it, as though he might say: What evil is there that could be given or added to a deceitful tongue? But there is a difficulty in the wording, firstly because in Hebrew it is read in the active: What shall he give or what shall he add; secondly, because the pronoun in to thee seems to require that this sentence does not refer to God, and hence does not continue on from the previous words. Concerning the first difficulty, the Hebrew word can be read in the passive if the points are changed, especially in itthem, which can then be read as iutthan; and it is clear it should be read in the passive because not only the Septuagint but also St. Jerome translates it in the passive: What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue? The wording to thee may be superfluous, from the Hebrew, as in Cant. I: “ Go forth;” and in chapter ii: “Come, arise, the rain is over;” and in this very Psalm: multum incola fuit anima mea sibi / “ My soul hath been long a sojourner,” where the translators omit the redundant word sibi, and then the sentence continues in this way: “O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue;” what evil is there that could be given or added “to a deceitful tongue?” that is, over and above a deceitful tongue? But if it is felt that the word sibi is not redundant here, it may be explained as meaning that the Prophet, after his prayer to God turns to himself or to an unknown person, saying: “O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue;” O my soul, or whoever art present, what evil could be given or added “to a deceitful tongue?” that is, over and above the evil of a deceitful tongue?

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.