Psalms 62:11
They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes.
Open Psalms 62:11 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- tradentur in manus gladii : partes vulpium erunt.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- παραδοθήσονται εἰς χεῖρας ῥομφαίας, μερίδες ἀλωπέκων ἔσονται.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 63:11
- יַגִּירֻ֥הוּ עַל יְדֵי חָ֑רֶב מְנָ֖ת שֻׁעָלִ֣ים יִהְיֽוּ
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXIII
15. “They shall be delivered unto the hands of the sword” ( ver. 10 ). In truth, thus it hath visibly befallen them, they have been taken by storm by enemies breaking in. “Portions of foxes they shall be.” Foxes he calleth the kings of the world, that then were when Judæa was conquered. Hear in order that ye may know and perceive, that those he calleth foxes. Herod the king the Lord Himself hath called a fox. “Go ye,” He saith, “and tell that fox.” See and observe, my brethren: Christ as King they would not have, and portions of foxes they have been made. For when Pilate the deputy governor in Judæa slew Christ at the voices of the Jews, he said to the same Jews, “Your King shall I crucify?” Because He was called King of the Jews, and He was the true King. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXXIX
“All they that go by the way have spoiled him:” that is, all the heathen that go by the way, meaning, all who pass through this life, have spoiled Israel, have spoiled David. First of all, see his fragments in all nations: for it is of the Jews that it is said, “They shall be a portion for foxes.” For the Scripture calls wicked, crafty, and cowardly kings, whom another’s virtue terrifies, foxes. Thus when our Lord Himself was speaking of the threatening Herod, He said, “Go ye, and tell that fox.” The king who fears no man, is not a fox: like that Lion of Judah, of whom it is said, “Stooping down Thou didst rise up, and didst sleep as a lion.” At Thy will Thou didst stoop down, at Thy will didst rise; because Thou wouldest, Thou didst sleep. …
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).