Psalms 39:16
Let them immediately bear their confusion, that say to me: Tis well, tis well.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ferant confestim confusionem suam, qui dicunt mihi : Euge, euge !
- Septuagint (Swete)
- κομισάσθωσαν παραχρῆμα αἰσχύνην αὐτῶν οἱ λέγοντές μοι Εὖγε εὖγε.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 40:16
- יָ֭שֹׁמּוּ עַל עֵ֣קֶב בָּשְׁתָּ֑ם הָאֹמְרִ֥ים לִ֝֗י הֶ֘אָ֥ח הֶאָֽח
Haydock's commentary
'Tis well. The Hebrew here is an interjection of insult and derision, like the Vah, Matthew xxvii. 40. (Challoner)
As St. Jerome here expresses it, Vah, Vah. See Mark xv. 29. (Menochius)
The Jews have now become objects of contempt, (Calmet) a just punishment (Haydock) of scoffers, who wish evil to the good.
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 Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XL
25. “Let them speedily bear away their own confusion, that say unto me, Well done! Well done!” ( ver. 15 ). They praise you without reason. “A great man! A good man! A man of education and of learning; but why a Christian?” They praise those things in you which you should wish not to be praised; they find fault with that at which you rejoice. But if perhaps you say, “What is it you praise in me, O man? That I am a virtuous man? A just man? If you think this, Christ made me this; praise Him.” But the other says, “Be it far from you. Do yourself no wrong! You yourself made yourself such.” “Let them be confounded who say unto me, Well done! Well done!” And what follows?
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm L
26. “Thy mouth hath abounded in malice, and thy tongue hath embraced deceit” ( ver. 19 ). Of the malevolence and deceit, brethren, of certain men he speaketh, who by adulation, though they know what they hear to be evil, yet lest they offend those from whom they hear, not only by not reproving but by holding their peace do consent. Too little is it, that they do not say, Thou hast done evil: but they even say, Thou hast done even well: and they know it to be evil: but their mouth aboundeth in malice, and their tongue embraceth deceit. Deceit is a sort of guile in words, of uttering one thing, thinking another. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XXI. Of the fact that devils struggle with men not without effort on their part
But our belief is that they undertake this struggle not without effort on their part. For in their conflict they themselves have some sort of anxiety and depression, and especially when they are matched with stronger rivals, i.e., saints and perfect men. Otherwise no contest or struggle, but only a simple deception of men, and one free from anxiety on their part would be assigned to them. And how then would the Apostle’s words stand, where he says: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against world-rulers of this darkness, against spiritual wickedness in heavenly places;” and this too: “So fight I, not as one that beateth the air;” and again: “I have fought a good fight”? For where it is spoken of as a fight, and conflict, and battle, there must be effort and exertion and anxiety on both sides, and equally there must either be in store for …