Psalms 36:12
The sinner shall watch the just man: and shall gnash upon him with his teeth.
Open Psalms 36:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Observabit peccator justum, et stridebit super eum dentibus suis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- παρατηρήσεται ὁ ἁμαρτωλὸς τὸν δίκαιον, καὶ βρύξει ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτοῦ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 37:12
- זֹמֵ֣ם רָ֭שָׁע לַצַּדִּ֑יק וְחֹרֵ֖ק עָלָ֣יו שִׁנָּֽיו
Haydock's commentary
Watch. Hebrew, "plot against." (Haydock)
Teeth. In rage to destroy him, (Calmet) whose virtue is a continual censure of his impiety. (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 Cyprian Treatise X
8. Hence the threatening countenance, the lowering aspect, pallor in the face, trembling on the lips, gnashing of the teeth, mad words, unbridled revilings, a hand prompt for the violence of slaughter; even if for the time deprived of a sword, yet armed with the hatred of an infuriate mind. And accordingly the Holy Spirit says in the Psalms: “Be not jealous against him who walketh prosperously in his way.” And again: “The wicked shall observe the righteous, and shall gnash upon him with his teeth. But God shall laugh at him; for He seeth that his day is coming.” The blessed Apostle Paul designates and points out these when he says, “The poison of asps is under their lips, and their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways, who have not known the way of peace; neither is the fear of God before their eyes.”
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Part 2
1. Then follow these words: “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth” ( ver. 12 ): “But the Lord shall laugh at him” ( ver. 13 ). At whom? Surely at the sinner, “gnashing upon” the other “with his teeth.” But wherefore shall the Lord “laugh at him”? “For He foreseeth that his day is coming.” He seems indeed full of wrath, while, ignorant of the morrow that is in store for him, he is threatening the just. But the Lord beholds and “foresees his day.” “What day?” That in which “He will render to every man according to his works.” For he is “treasuring up unto himself wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation of the just judgment of God.” But it is the Lord that foresees it; thou dost not foresee it. It hath been revealed to thee by Him who foresees it. Thou didst not know of the “day of the unrighteous,” in which he is to suffer punishment. …