Psalms 100:8
In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land: that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord.
Open Psalms 100:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- In matutino interficiebam omnes peccatores terræ, ut disperderem de civitate Domini omnes operantes iniquitatem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἰς τὰς πρωίας ἀπέκτεννον πάντας τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς τῆς γῆς, τοῦ ἐξολεθρεῦσαι ἐκ πόλεως Κυρίου πάντας τοὺς ἐργαζομένους τὴν ἀδικίαν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 101:8
- לַבְּקָרִ֗ים אַצְמִ֥ית כָּל רִשְׁעֵי אָ֑רֶץ לְהַכְרִ֥ית מֵֽעִיר יְ֝הוָ֗ה כָּל פֹּ֥עֲלֵי אָֽוֶן
Haydock's commentary
Morning. Without delay, (Worthington; Jeremias xxi. 12.; Haydock) and with a mind composed. (St. Isidore, Pelus i. ep. 321.)
The Jews explain this of the judgment of zeal, by which a person might kill a notorious criminal, without any trail, (Calmet) in imitation of Phinees and Mathathias, 1 Machabees ii. 24. (Haydock)
God alone will punish all malefactors at the last day. (St. Augustine)
The Fathers admonish us to resist temptations at the beginning. (Calmet)
Principiis obsta; sero medicina paratur
Cum mala per longas convaluere moras. (Ovid)
Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Origen Origen Against Celsus, Chapter XIX
Now if these words in the law, “Thou shalt have dominion over many nations, and no one shall rule over thee,” were simply a promise to them of dominion, and if they contain no deeper meaning than this, then it is certain that the people would have had still stronger grounds for despising the promises of the law. Celsus brings forward another passage, although he changes the terms of it, where it is said that the whole earth shall be filled with the Hebrew race; which indeed, according to the testimony of history, did actually happen after the coming of Christ, although rather as a result of God’s anger, if I may so say, than of His blessing. As to the promise made to the Jews that they should slay their enemies, it may be answered that any one who examines carefully into the meaning of this passage will find himself unable to interpret it literally. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CI
11. “In the morning I destroyed all the ungodly that were in the land. That I may root out all wicked doers from the city of the Lord” ( ver. 8 ). This is obscure. There are then wicked doers in the city of the Lord, and they at present, seemingly, spared. Why so? Because it is the season of mercy: but that of judgment will come; for the Psalm thus began, “Of mercy and judgment will I sing unto Thee, O Lord.”…
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Riparius
2. I am surprised that the reverend bishop in whose diocese he is said to be a presbyter acquiesces in this his mad preaching, and that he does not rather with apostolic rod, nay with a rod of iron, shatter this useless vessel and deliver him for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved. He should remember the words that are said: “When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst unto him; and hast been partaker with adulterers;” and in another place, “I will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord;” and again “Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.” If the relics of the martyrs are not worthy of honour, how comes it that we read “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints?” If dead men’s bones d …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).