Psalms 34:5
Let them become as dust before the wind: and let the angel of the Lord straiten them.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Fiant tamquam pulvis ante faciem venti, et angelus Domini coarctans eos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- γενηθήτωσαν ὡσεὶ χνοῦς κατὰ πρόσωπον ἀνέμου, καὶ ἄγγελος Κυρίου ἐκθλίβων αὐτούς·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 35:5
- יִֽהְי֗וּ כְּמֹ֥ץ לִפְנֵי ר֑וּחַ וּמַלְאַ֖ךְ יְהוָ֣ה דּוֹחֶֽה
Haydock's commentary
Dust. Hebrew mots, small "chaff," Psalm i. 4. (Vatable)
Angel. The evil spirits are employed to punish the wicked, as the good [angels] protect the just, Psalm xxxiii. 8. Some Fathers have supposed that every man was attended by a good and a bad angel. (Hermes ii.; Origen xxxv. in Luke; St. Gregory of Nyssa, vit. Mos.; Cassian viii. 17., and xiii. 12.)
But the Church admits the power of the wicked spirits only against those who take part with them, or "as far as God allows them" (St. Jerome) to tempt. The devil is like a dog chained down, which can bite none but those who come within its reach. (St. Augustine)
Both good and bad angels are ministers of God's justice. (Haydock)
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 XXXV
6. What of others? For all are not so conquered as to be converted and believe: many continue in obstinacy, many preserve in heart the spirit of going before, and if they exert it not, yet they labour with it, and finding opportunity bring it forth. Of such, what followeth? “Let them be as dust before the wind” ( ver. 5 ). “Not so are the ungodly, not so; but as the dust which the wind driveth away from the face of the earth.” The wind is temptation; the dust are the ungodly. When temptation cometh, the dust is raised, it neither standeth nor resisteth. “Let them be as dust before the wind, and let the Angel of the Lord trouble them.” “Let their way be darkness and slipping” ( ver. 6 ). …