Psalms 34:20
For they spoke indeed peaceably to me; and speaking in the anger of the earth they devised guile.
Open Psalms 34:20 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quoniam mihi quidem pacifice loquebantur ; et in iracundia terræ loquentes, dolos cogitabant.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ἐμοὶ μὲν εἰρηνικὰ ἐλάλουν, καὶ ἐπ᾽ ὀργῇ δόλους διελογίζοντο·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 35:20
- כִּ֤י לֹ֥א שָׁל֗וֹם יְדַ֫בֵּ֥רוּ וְעַ֥ל רִגְעֵי אֶ֑רֶץ דִּבְרֵ֥י מִ֝רְמוֹת יַחֲשֹׁבֽוּן
Haydock's commentary
Spoke. Hebrew adds lo, "not." But it may be better explained as an interrogation. "Have they not spoken?" &c., as the enemies used deceit. (Houbigant) (Berthier)
Earth. This word is omitted in the Roman Septuagint, St. Augustine, &c. But Theodoret reads it, and it is in all the other Greek interpreters, and in the Arabic and Syriac. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "they devise deceitful matters against them that are quiet (righe, divided, &c.) in the land." (Protestants) or "in the plunder of the earth they devise deceit." (St. Jerome) (Haydock)
They appear friendly, but when alone they talk to the earth, like people in deep study and full of passion. (Calmet)
This terrestrial anger is the source of much evil. (Berthier)
The Jews and Herodians said, Master, &c., designing to inveigle our Saviour, Matthew xxii. The priests and Pharisees also accused him boldly, and instigated the people to demand his crucifixion. (Worthington)
They were split into parties, and invaded those who were the reverse of passionate. (Menochius)
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 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter II. 12-21
1. In the psalm you have heard the groaning of the poor, whose members endure tribulations over the whole earth, even unto the end of the world. Make it your chief business, my brethren, to be among and of these members: for all tribulation is to pass away. “Woe to them that rejoice!” “Blessed,” says the Truth, “are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.” God has become man: what shall man be, for whom God is become man? Let this hope comfort us in every tribulation and temptation of this life. For the enemy does not cease to persecute; and when he does not openly rage, he plots in secret. How does he plot? “And for wrath, they worked deceitfully.” Thence is he called a lion and a dragon. But what is said to Christ? “Thou shall tread on the lion and the dragon.” Lion, for open rage; dragon, for hidden treachery. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXV
22. “Let not them that are Mine enemies wrongfully rejoice over Me:” for they rejoice over Me because of My chaff. “Who hate Me without a cause;” that is, whom I never hurt; “winking with their eyes” ( ver. 19 ): that is, pretending hypocrites, “For they spake indeed peace to Me” ( ver. 20 ). What is, “winking with their eyes”? Declaring by their looks, what they carry not in their heart. And who are these “winking with their eyes”? “For they spake indeed peace to Me; and with wrath devised craftily.” “Yea they opened their mouth wide against Me” ( ver. 21 ). First winking with their eyes, those lions sought to ravish and devour; first fawning they spake peace, and then with wrath devised craftily. What peace spake they? “Master, we know that Thou acceptest not man’s person, and teachest the way of God in truth. …