Psalms 58:8
Behold they shall speak with their mouth, and a sword is in their lips: for who, say they, hath heard us?
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ecce loquentur in ore suo, et gladius in labiis eorum : quoniam quis audivit ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἰδοὺ ἀποφθέγξονται ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, καὶ ῥομφαία ἐν τοῖς χείλεσιν αὐτῶν· ὅτι τίς ἤκουσεν;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 59:8
- הִנֵּ֤ה יַבִּ֘יע֤וּן בְּפִיהֶ֗ם חֲ֭רָבוֹת בְּשִׂפְתוֹתֵיהֶ֑ם כִּי מִ֥י שֹׁמֵֽעַ
Haydock's commentary
Lips. They seek my ruin, 2 Esdras iv. 2, &c.
Heard. Thus they deny Providence, Psalm (Hebrew) x. 11. (Calmet)
This thought and the occasion of sin have produced much wickedness. "Whithersoever thou goest, thou art seen by Jesus Christ, who made, redeemed, and died for thee." (St. Augustine, Ser. 161.)
A serious consideration of God's presence is the best preservative. (Berthier)
The wicked devise all sorts of cruelty, as if there were no God. (Worthington)
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, Part 1
15. “Behold, themselves shall speak in their mouth, and a sword is on the lips of them” ( ver. 7 ). Here is that sword twice whetted, whereof the Apostle saith, “And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” Wherefore twice whetted? Wherefore, but because smiting out of both Testaments? With this sword were slain those whereof it was said to Peter, “Slay, and eat.” “And a sword is on the lips of them. For who hath heard?” They all speak in their mouth, “Who hath heard?” That is, they shall be wroth with men that are slow to believe. They that a little before were even themselves unwilling to believe, do feel disgust from men not believing. And truly, brethren, so it is. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Part 2
7. “They shall be scattered abroad in order that they may eat” ( ver. 15 ); that is, in order that they may gain others, in order that into their Body they may change believers. “But if they shall not be filled, they shall murmur.” Because above also he had spoken of the murmur of them, saying, “For who hath heard?” “And Thou, O Lord,” he saith, “shall deride them, saying, Who hath heard?” Wherefore? Because, as nothing Thou shall count all nations. Let the Psalm be concluded. See ye the Corner exulting, now with both walls rejoicing. The Jews were proud, humbled they have been; Gentiles were despairing, raised up they have been: let them come to the Corner, there let them meet, there run together, there find the kiss of peace; from different parts let them come, but with differing not come, those of Circumcision, these of uncircumcision. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it 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).