Psalms 54:24
But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.
Open Psalms 54:24 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Tu vero, Deus, deduces eos in puteum interitus. Viri sanguinum et dolosi non dimidiabunt dies suos ; ego autem sperabo in te, Domine.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- σὺ δέ, ὁ θεός, κατάξεις αὐτοὺς εἰς φρέαρ διαφθορᾶς· ἄνδρες αἱμάτων καὶ δολιότητος οὐ μὴ ἡμισεύσωσιν τὰς ἡμέρας αὐτῶν· ἐγὼ δὲ ἐλπιῶ ἐπὶ σέ, Κύριε.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 55:24
- וְאַתָּ֤ה אֱלֹהִ֨ים תּוֹרִדֵ֬ם לִבְאֵ֬ר שַׁ֗חַת אַנְשֵׁ֤י דָמִ֣ים וּ֭מִרְמָה לֹא יֶחֱצ֣וּ יְמֵיהֶ֑ם וַ֝אֲנִ֗י אֶבְטַח בָּֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
Destruction; "into gehenna," (Chaldean) or "hell," (St. Jerome) to which the judge sentences the reprobate, without promoting their crimes. (St. Augustine) (Calmet)
Days. It is rare that murderers and notorious malefactors escape punishment in this world; but in the next, they will surely be requited. Absalom perished in the flower of his age. (Berthier)
Achitophel, and many others, have been suddenly cut off. God sometimes permits such to reign for a time, to exercise his servants, or that they may repent. (St. Augustine)
The Scripture often threatens sinners in this manner, Job xxi. 21., and Isaias lxv. 20. (Calmet)
Their days are indeed spent, when they die. But if they had altered their conduct, they might have prolonged their life, (Haydock) according to the usual course of nature. (Worthington) (Menochius)
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 LV
24. But to the others what? “But Thou, O God, shall bring them down unto the pit of corruption” ( ver. 23 ). The pit of corruption is the darkness of sinking under. When blind leadeth blind, they both fall into a ditch. God bringeth them down into the pit of corruption, not because He is the author of their own guilt, but because He is Himself the judge of their iniquities. “For God hath delivered them unto the desires of their heart.” For they have loved darkness, and not light; they have loved blindness, and not seeing. For behold the Lord Jesus hath shone out to the whole world, let them sing in unity with the whole world: “For there is not one that can hide himself from the heat of Him.” But they passing over from the whole to a part, from the body to a wound, from life to a limb cut off, shall meet with what, but going into the pit of corruption?
St John Chrysostom Letter to a Young Widow
On this account also wealth has seemed to the majority of men to be a good thing; at least when it is stripped of this passion of vainglory it will no longer seem desirable. At any rate those who have been permitted to obtain in the midst of their poverty popular glory have no longer preferred wealth, but rather have despised much gold when it was bestowed upon them. And you have no need to learn from me who these men were, for you know them better than I do, Epaminondas, Socrates, Aristeides, Diogenes, Krates who turned his own land into a sheep walk. The others indeed, inasmuch as it was not possible for them to get rich, saw glory brought to them in the midst of their poverty, and straightway devoted themselves to it, but this man threw away even what he possessed; so infatuated were they in the pursuit of this cruel monster. …
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XVI
Therefore fear not hunger, for ( Prov. x. 3 .) “the Lord will not kill with hunger the souls of the righteous.” And again, another saith, ( Ps. lv. 23 .) “Cast upon the Lord thy care, and He will nourish thee.” For if the sparrows of the field are nourished by Him, how shall He not nourish thee? Now let us not be of little faith nor of little soul, O my beloved! For He who hath promised the kingdom of heaven and such great blessings, how shall He not give things present? Let us not covet superfluous things, but let us keep to a sufficiency, and we shall always be rich. Let shelter be what we seek and food, and we shall obtain all things; both these, and such as are far greater.