Psalms 37:2
Rebuke me not, O Lord, in thy indignation; nor chastise me in thy wrath.
Open Psalms 37:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Domine, ne in furore tuo arguas me, neque in ira tua corripias me :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Κύριε, μὴ τῷ θυμῷ σου ἐλέγξῃς με, μηδὲ τῇ ὀργῇ σου παιδεύσῃς με.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 38:2
- יְֽהוָ֗ה אַל בְּקֶצְפְּךָ֥ תוֹכִיחֵ֑נִי וּֽבַחֲמָתְךָ֥ תְיַסְּרֵֽנִי
Haydock's commentary
Wrath. God is incapable of passion: but man deserves to be treated with the utmost rigour; and this David deprecates, begging that God would act rather like a physician in his regard. (Theodoret) (Calmet)
The same petition occurs in psalm vi.; and this ought to caution people not to make imprecations, since God's judgments are so terrible. (Berthier)
St. Augustine and St. Gregory explain this text of the fire of hell, and of purgatory, 1 Corinthians iii. 15. (Haydock)
Though some be saved by the latter, "yet is that fire more grievous than whatever man can suffer in this life." (St. Augustine)
"I esteem that transitory fire more intolerable than all present tribulation." (St. Gregory) (Worthington)
We may therefore pray, "Here burn," &c., with the same St. Augustine who assures us, (Gen. con. Man. ii. 20.) that "he who cultivates not the field of his soul, will, after this life, experience either the fire of purgatory or eternal punishment." (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 XXXVIII
2. “O Lord, rebuke me not in Thine indignation; neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure” ( ver. 1 ). For it will be that some shall be chastened in God’s “hot displeasure,” and rebuked in His “indignation.” And haply not all who are “rebuked” will be “chastened;” yet are there some that are to be saved in the chastening. So it is to be indeed, because it is called “chastening,” but yet it shall be “so as by fire.” But there are to be some who will be “rebuked,” and will not be “corrected.” For he will at all events “rebuke” those to whom He will say, “I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat.”… “Neither chasten me in Thy hot displeasure;” so that Thou mayest cleanse me in this life, and make me such, that I may after that stand in no need of the cleansing fire, for those “who are to be saved, yet so as by fire.” Why? Why, but because they “build upon the foundation, wood, stubble, and …