Psalms 140:7
As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground: Our bones are scattered by the side of hell.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sicut crassitudo terræ erupta est super terram, dissipata sunt ossa nostra secus infernum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὡσεὶ πάχος γῆς διερράγη ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς, διεσκορπίσθη τὰ ὀστᾶ ἡμῶν παρὰ τὸν ᾅδην.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 141:7
- כְּמ֤וֹ פֹלֵ֣חַ וּבֹקֵ֣עַ בָּאָ֑רֶץ נִפְזְר֥וּ עֲ֝צָמֵ֗ינוּ לְפִ֣י שְׁאֽוֹל
Haydock's commentary
As when the thickness, &c. If this is to be connected with what goes before, it declares the efficacy of those powerful words, capable to break up the thick and hard earth, of the hearts of man. But if it is to be connected with the following words, our bones are scattered, &c., it means, that the malice of our enemies has, as it were, scattered our bones near the confines of death and hell; as the husbandman, plowing up or digging the earth, scatters and breaks the clods. (Challoner)
These are made small, that they may bear fruit, which is the effect of persecution upon the faithful. (St. Augustine) (Worthington)
Hebrew, "like the labourer breaking up the earth, so our," &c. (Calmet)
Houbigant would read, "their," (Berthier) with the Arabic, and many Greek copies. David alludes to his distress, (Calmet) while his people were still divided into parties, (Haydock) whose union he foretells. (Berthier)
Dry bones point out the state of the captives, Ezechiel xxxvii. 11. (Calmet)
Some persecutors rage against the bones and relics of the saints, which they would willingly hurl into hell. But the Church places her confidence in God. (Worthington)
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 CXLI
10. What then have all those deaths of the martyrs accomplished? Listen: “As the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth, our bones have been scattered beside the pit” ( ver. 7 ). “The bones” of the martyrs, that is, the bodies of the witnesses of Christ. The martyrs were slain, and they who slew them seemed to prevail. They prevailed by persecution, that the words of Christ might prevail by preaching. And what was the result of the deaths of the saints? What meaneth, “the fatness of the earth is spread over the earth”? We know that everything that is refuse is the fatness of the earth. The things which are, as it were, contemptible to men, enrich the earth.…“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.” As it is contemptible to the world, so is it precious to the husbandman. …