Bellarmine on Psalm 128: Verse 4

Verse 4

The Lord who is just will cut the necks of sinners : Let them all be confounded and turned back that hate Sion.

Dominus justus concidit cervices peccatorum. Confundantur, et convertantur retrorsum omnes qui oderunt Sion.

The Prophet now consoles God’s people, prophesying that divine vengeance on the wicked persecutors of the just is not far off, as though to say: Be of good spirit, ye just, your persecutors do indeed press upon your back or your neck : but soon the just Lord will not press upon their necks but will justly cut them and smash them with his sword into pieces, so that they will never more be able to harm you; and finally they shall be confounded who formerly were rejoicing and all those who hated and persecuted God’s people will be turned back, fleeing and falling. Note, firstly, that the verb concidet / he will cut is in the preterite in Greek and Hebrew, concidit / he cut. But St. Hilary and St. Augustine read it an interpret it as concidet / he will cut; hence it seems the reading was different in the Greek which they followed. The Hebrew language can indeed bear a change of tenses, so that we can read the preterite for the future. It is not easy for our Latin text to be changed. But whether we read the verb as he cut or he will cut, the sense remains the same. For God has already cut the necks of Pharaoh, Nabuchodonosor, Balthasar, Antiochus, Nero, Domitian and others like these; and in the future too He will cut the necks of all others who, in a similar fashion, are or will be persecutors of the just. Note, secondly, instead of the word cervices / necks, the Hebrew has laqueos / noose or funes / ropes; but it is more than likely that the Septuagint translators read the word not as it currently is in Hebrew but as a word 

which means necks or back; but it is no less likely that David retained the similitude, and so he said on my back, thus adding afterwards, He will cut the backs, so that he might show that the sinners would be punished with a similar but more serious penalty. Note, thirdly, that when God is said to cut the necks of sinners, the reference is to stubborn or proud sinners; for in relation to sinners who humbly confess their sins and desire to amend their lives, God does not cut their necks but heals their sickness. Note, fourthly, that the words be confounded and turned back are not properly speaking a prayer but a prophecy, as we have often shown. But anyone who wants to take the words in the sense they seem to convey will be able to explain them in a pious way, that it means confounding in a good sense which will lead to repentance and a turning away from sins and towards God; but the previous interpretation is more in keeping with the literal sense.

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.