Psalms 69:4
Let them be turned backward, and blush for shame that desire evils to me: Let them be presently turned away blushing for shame that say to me: Tis well, tis well.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Avertantur retrorsum, et erubescant, qui volunt mihi mala ; avertantur statim erubescentes qui dicunt mihi : Euge, euge !
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀποστραφείησαν παραυτίκα αἰσχυνόμενοι οἱ λέγοντές μοι Εὖγε εὖγε.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 70:4
- יָ֭שׁוּבוּ עַל עֵ֣קֶב בָּשְׁתָּ֑ם הָ֝אֹמְרִ֗ים הֶ֘אָ֥ח הֶאָֽח
Haydock's commentary
'Tis well, 'tis well. Euge, euge. St. Jerome renders it, vah! vah! which is the voice of one insulting and deriding. Some understand it as a detestation of deceitful flatterers. (Challoner)
In the New Testament, Well done, denotes applause. (St. Jerome in Ezechiel vi.)
These predictions relate to the murderers of the Messias. (Berthier)
In the 39th psalm, the Church prays for aid; and here David, persecuted by Absalom, or any of the just, lays before God his particular wants. (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, Psalm LXX
5. What followeth? “Let them be turned away forthwith blushing, that say to me, Well, well” ( ver. 3 ). Two are the kinds of persecutors, revilers and flatterers. The tongue of the flatterer doth more persecute than the hand of the slayer: for this also the Scripture hath called a furnace. Truly when the Scripture was speaking of persecution, it said, “Like gold in a furnace it hath proved them” (speaking of Martyrs being slain), “and as the holocaust’s victim it hath received them.” Hear how even the tongue of flatterers is of such sort: “The proving,” he saith, “of silver and of gold is fire; but a man is proved by the tongue of men praising him.” That is fire, this also is fire: out of both thou oughtest to go forth safe. The censurer hath broken thee, thou hast been broken in the furnace like an earthen vessel. …