Verse 6
With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.
Cum his qui oderunt pacem eram pacificus; cum loquebar illis, impugnabant me gratis.
He concludes by giving the reason why it is an evil to journey in exile for such a long time, and explaining the metaphor of the words the tents of Cedar; for what he said metaphorically and obscurely: “I have dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar,” he now clarifies, saying: “I have dwelt with them that hated peace,” I, who love nothing more than peace, I have dwelt with those who were very different to me, with the perverse and unjust, who were wont to wage war against their friends as well as their enemies; and if perchance I would begin to speak to them of peace, they would without any reason fight against me. In the Hebrew text, the interpunction
[1] is different, and this is followed by St. Jerome: thus, there it reads: My soul hath been long a sojourner with them that hated peace. I spoke of peace, and they of war. But the interpunction followed by the Septuagint is older and better; in the Hebrew it does not simply say: I spoke of peace; but, word for word, it says: I peace, and when I spoke. From which we understand the Septuagint is correct in placing a point after
pacem, and what we have said can be rendered from the Hebrew as
ego pacem can also be rendered as
I peace, so that the sense is:
With them that hated peace, I was peace, that is, I was peaceful, so that I might be said to be peace itself; and afterwards follows the line: and when I spoke, they to war, evidently they provoked war, which fits with the sentence as translated in the Septuagint, and we read in our Latin version: “When I spoke to them they fought against me.” The word
gratis / without cause is added by the Septuagint for the sake of explanation. This Psalm is applicable to all of the elect, but chiefly to Christ, the head of the elect, insofar as He was a wayfarer (here on earth), according to His having a mortal body. For truly He cried out to the Lord His Father when He passed the night in prayer to God, and later in the garden, and finally on the cross; and He was most certainly heard, when God exalted Him and gave to Him “a name above all names.”
[2] He truly suffered from wicked lips and deceitful tongues even to the moment of His death, as appears from all the Gospel accounts. He could truly say: “My sojourning is prolonged,” since he said in the Gospel: “ O adulterous and incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?”
[3] He truly “dwelt with the inhabitants of Cedar,” that is, He did not dwell in darkness but in light, but He was seen “with the inhabitants of Cedar,” and conversed with them. Finally, “with them that hated peace” He truly was peaceable, because “when he was reviled, he did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not;”
[4] and when He spoke to them of peace, of charity, and of the kingdom of God Himself, they fought against Him without any reason or cause, which John notes in chapter xv, when he says: “ But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated me without cause."
[5][1] The insertion of points between words, clauses, or sentences; punctuation. OED.
[2] For which cause God also hath exalted him, and hath given him a name which is above all names: Propter quod et Deus exaltavit illum, et donavit illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen : [Philipp. ii. 9]
[3] Who answering them, said: O incredulous generation, how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you? bring him unto me. Qui respondens eis, dixit : O generatio incredula, quamdiu apud vos ero? quamdiu vos patiar? afferte illum ad me. [Mark
[4] Who, when he was reviled, did not revile: when he suffered, he threatened not: but delivered himself to him that judged him unjustly. qui cum malediceretur, non maledicebat : cum pateretur, non comminabatur : tradebat autem judicanti se injuste : [I Pet. ii. 23]
[5] But that the word may be fulfilled which is written in their law: They hated me without cause. Sed ut adimpleatur sermo, qui in lege eorum scriptus est : Quia odio habuerunt me gratis. [John xv, 25]
Totus tuus ego sum
Et omnia mea tua sunt;
Tecum semper tutus sum:
Ad Jesum per Mariam.
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