Psalms 67:17
Why suspect, ye curdled mountains? A mountain in which God is well pleased to dwell: for there the Lord shall dwell unto the end.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ut quid suspicamini, montes coagulatos ? mons in quo beneplacitum est Deo habitare in eo ; etenim Dominus habitabit in finem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἵνα τί ὑπολαμβάνετε, ὄρη τετυρωμένα; τὸ ὄρος ὃ εὐδόκησεν ὁ θεὸς κατοικεῖν ἐν αὐτῷ· καὶ γὰρ ὁ κύριος κατασκηνώσει εἰς τέλος.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 68:17
- לָ֤מָּה תְּֽרַצְּדוּן֮ הָרִ֪ים גַּבְנֻ֫נִּ֥ים הָהָ֗ר חָמַ֣ד אֱלֹהִ֣ים לְשִׁבְתּ֑וֹ אַף יְ֝הוָ֗ה יִשְׁכֹּ֥ן לָנֶֽצַח
Haydock's commentary
Why suspect ye curdled mountains? Why do you suppose or imagine there may be any other such curdled mountains? You are mistaken: the mountain thus favoured by God is but one; and this same he has chosen for his dwelling for ever. (Challoner)
They who are not of the Church, vainly imagine, that any other mountains are united, (Worthington) rich in grace, or beautiful. (Haydock)
Sects do not agree among themselves, but only in opposing the Catholic Church. They have not the marks of truth, which are here given. The Church of God is compared to a mountain, visible to all; fat, with the graces of the Holy Ghost; united and firm, like cheese; the perpetual residence of God, who will never suffer her to fall into error. (Worthington)
Why then do you deign to look at such conventicles of pride and perdition, as if they could be the one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church? Hebrew, "why do ye contend, ye high mountains, against the mountain?" &c. (St. Jerome) (Haydock)
There are several other interpretations. But that of the Vulgate, suspicamini, is the most followed, even by the Jews. (Berthier)
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
The Apostolic Constitutions Book VI, Sec. II. History and Doctrines of Heresies
V. For those are most certainly to be avoided who blaspheme God. The greatest part of the ungodly, indeed, are ignorant of God; but these men, as fighters against God, are possessed with a wilful evil disposition, as with a disease. For from the wickedness of these heretics “pollution is gone out upon all the earth,” as says the prophet Jeremiah. For the wicked synagogue is now cast off by the Lord God, and His house is rejected by Him, as He somewhere speaks: “I have forsaken mine house, I have left mine inheritance.” And again, says Isaiah: “I will neglect my vineyard, and it shall not be pruned nor digged, and thorns shall spring up upon it, as upon a desert; and I will command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.” He has therefore “left His people as a tent in a vineyard, and as a garner in a fig or olive yard, and as a besieged city.” He has taken away from them the Holy Spiri …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXVIII
20. Secondly, in the expression, “Mountain of God, Mountain full of curds,” Mountain “fruitful,” let no one dare from this to compare the Lord Jesus Christ with the rest of the Saints, who are themselves also called mountains of God.…For there were not wanting men to call Him, some John Baptist, some Elias, some Jeremias, or one of the Prophets; He turneth to them and saith, “Why do ye imagine mountains full of curds, a mountain,” he saith, “wherein it hath pleased God to dwell therein”? ( ver. 16 ). …