Bellarmine on Psalm 123 : Verse 4

Verse 4

Our soul hath passed through a torrent: perhaps our soul had passed through a water insupportable.

torrentem pertransivit anima nostra; forsitan pertransisset anima nostra aquam intolerabilem.

He persists with the same similitude, comparing the persecutions of his enemies to a a swift and deep torrent, which cannot be crossed without most powerful help. If anyone wonders what were the persecutions of the pagans and the heretics against the holy martyrs, and the temptations of the devils against the holy hermits and confessors,[1] he will see that they were like an extremely violent torrent, and although the holy and glorious martyrs and confessors survived its passage, yet many, almost without number, perished as though borne away and swallowed up by the force of this torrent, as can be learned from Cyprian in his sermon De Lapsis, and from Eusebius  of Cæsariensis in book viii, chapter I, of his Hist., the Ruffinus version. Speaking in the person of the saints, the Prophet says:

“Our soul hath passed through a torrent,” that is, our soul has passed through a persecution, as through a torrent; for the flesh succumbed and yielded before the fury of the persecutors, but the soul gloriously passed through it; but “If it had not been that the Lord was with us, perhaps our soul had passed through a water insupportable,” that is, it had entered into a very deep deep torrent from which it could not escape. The word pertransisset / had passed through, does not signify transivisset / had crossed, or evasisset / had escaped, butrather intrasset / had entered into, and pertransire coepisset / had begun to pass through, or pertransire coacta fuisset / had been forced to pass through. The word intolerabilem / insupportable is correctly translated by the Septuagint as ἀνυπόστατον, that is, without substance, without hypostasis, without foundation, without a firm base where the feet can be set, and by this word is signified the depth of the waters, which cannot be passed. But at this point appears an open contradiction between the Hebrew and Septuagint texts. For the Hebrew clearly has a torrent hath passed  over our soul; and a little later, the Hebrew text has perhaps insupportable waters had passed

over our soul; but the Septuagint has perhaps our soul had passed through a water insupportable. Indeed, St. Jerome, in his commentary on this text, does not hide the superiority of the Hebrew reading. But we are of the opinion that these (different) readings may be reconciled in two ways. Firstly, it may be that the Septuagint translators did not have in their text the Hebrew particle which signifies super / above; this particle determines the noun anima / soul in the accusative case, but when it is removed, there is an ambiguity as to whether the word anima / soul, and the words torrens / torrent and aquæ / waters should be in the nominative or accusative. Accordingly, the Hebrew words can support either reading, namely that of St. Jerome : A torrent hath passed through our soul; and that of the Septuagint : Our soul hath passed through a torrent; since it is likely that the Septuagint translators had better codices than St. Jerome, and that they translated faithfully what they found, it follows that the Septuagint reading, which is that of our Vulgate edition and of the Hebrew, as it now appears is to be retained and preferred. It is also possible that the Septuagint translators read the text like St. Jerome but preferred to transfer the sense rather than the words, since when someone passes through a deep torrent, it also comes to pass he passes through the torrent and the torrent passes over him. But the sentence seems clearer if the man is said to pass through the torrent than if the torrent is said to pass over him. For it is possible for a torrent to pass over a man, even when he is motionless and prostrate in the depths, but (such) a man cannot pass through a torrent, so that (truly) the torrent passes over him. So that the Septuagint translators could signify that the torrent passed over a man who was not prostrate but walking or swimming, they preferred to say that the man passed through the torrent rather than that the torrent passed over the man.

[1] One who avows his religion in the face of danger, and adheres to it under persecution and torture, but does not suffer martyrdom; spec. one who has been recognized by the church in this character. (The earliest sense in English.) OED.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.