Psalms 108:25
And I am become a reproach to them: they saw me and they shaked their heads,
Open Psalms 108:25 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ego factus sum opprobrium illis ; viderunt me, et moverunt capita sua.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγὼ ἐγενήθην ὄνειδος αὐτοῖς· εἴδοσάν με, ἐσάλευσαν κεφαλὰς αὐτῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 109:25
- וַאֲנִ֤י הָיִ֣יתִי חֶרְפָּ֣ה לָהֶ֑ם יִ֝רְא֗וּנִי יְנִיע֥וּן רֹאשָֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Heads, and saying, Vah, &c. (Matthew xxvii. 40.) as Semei insulted David, (2 Kings xvi. 5.; Calmet) though he is not said to have shaken his head, for which reason the prophecy may rather relate solely to Christ. (Berthier)
"To pay our ransom, he was crucified; to be crucified, he was despised; and to be despised, he appeared in a state of abjection." (St. Augustine)
These three steps were requisite, as the Jews would never have dared to lay hands on him, if he had appeared in glory. (Berthier)
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
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CIX
25. “Help me, O Lord my God: O save me according to Thy mercy” ( ver. 25 ). This may be referred to the whole, both to the Head and to the body: to the Head, owing to His having taken the form of a servant; to the body, on account of the servants themselves. For He might even in them have said unto God, “Help Me:” and, “O save Me:” as in them He said unto Paul, “Why persecutest thou Me”? The following words, “according to Thy mercy,” describe grace given gratuitously, not according to the merit of works.
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the words, Crucified and Buried
17. But the soldiers who crowd around mock Him, and their Lord becomes a sport to them, and upon their Master they make jests. When they looked on Me, they shaked their heads . Yet the figure of kingly state appears; for though in mockery, yet they bend the knee. And the soldiers before they crucify Him, put on Him a purple robe, and set a crown on His head; for what though it be of thorns? Every king is proclaimed by soldiers; and Jesus also must in a figure be crowned by soldiers; so that for this cause the Scripture says in the Canticles, Go forth, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, and look upon King Solomon in the crown wherewith His mother crowned Him . And the crown itself was a mystery; for it was a remission of sins, a release from the curse.
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the words, Crucified and Buried
30. Concerning the robbers who were crucified with Him, it is written, And He was numbered with the transgressors . Both of them were before this transgressors, but one was so no longer. For the one was a transgressor to the end, stubborn against salvation; who, though his hands were fastened, smote with blasphemy by his tongue. When the Jews passing by wagged their heads, mocking the Crucified, and fulfilling what was written, When they looked on Me, they shaked their heads , he also reviled with them. But the other rebused the reviler; and it was to him the end of life and the beginning of restoration; the surrender of his soul a first share in salvation. And after rebuking the other, he says, Lord, remember me ; for with Thee is my account. Heed not this man, for the eyes of his understanding are blinded; but remember me. I say not, remember my works, for of these I am afraid. …
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).