Psalms 71:4
He shall judge the poor of the people, and he shall save the children of the poor: and he shall humble the oppressor.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Judicabit pauperes populi, et salvos faciet filios pauperum, et humiliabit calumniatorem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ κρινεῖ τοὺς πτωχοὺς ⸂⸆⸃ τοῦ λαοῦ· καὶ σώσεις τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν πενήτων, καὶ ταπεινώσει συκοφάντην·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 72:4
- יִשְׁפֹּ֤ט עֲֽנִיֵּי עָ֗ם י֭וֹשִׁיעַ לִבְנֵ֣י אֶבְי֑וֹן וִֽידַכֵּ֣א עוֹשֵֽׁק
Haydock's commentary
Oppressor. Literally, "calumniator." Christ has chained down the devil, the accuser of our brethren, Apocalypse xii. 10., and xx. 2. (Menochius)
He hath taken away his spoils, (John viii. 44.) and undertaken the defence of the humble, Isaias xi. 4. Solomon was also the reverse of those wicked princes, who receive bribes, and neglect the poor, Isaias i. 23. (Calmet)
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
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Christ's Sermon on the Mount. In Manner and Contents It So Resembles the Creator's Dispensational Words and Deeds. It Suggests Therefore the Conclusion that Jesus is the Creator's Christ. The Beatitudes
In the psalm he exclaims: “Defend the fatherless and the needy; do justice to the humble and the poor; deliver the poor, and rid the needy out of the hand of the wicked.” Similarly in the seventy-first Psalm: “In righteousness shall He judge the needy amongst the people, and shall save the children of the poor.” And in the following words he says of Christ: “All nations shall serve Him.” Now David only reigned over the Jewish nation, so that nobody can suppose that this was spoken of David; whereas He had taken upon Himself the condition of the poor, and such as were oppressed with want, “Because He should deliver the needy out of the hand of the mighty man; He shall spare the needy and the poor, and shall deliver the souls of the poor. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXII
7. “He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the sons of the poor” ( ver. 4 ). The poor and the sons of the poor seem to me to be the very same, as the same city is Sion and the daughter of Sion. But if it is to be understood with a distinction, the poor we take to be the mountains, but the sons of the poor the hills: for instance, Prophets and Apostles, the poor, but the sons of them, that is, those that profit under their authority, the sons of the poor. But that which hath been said above, “shall judge;” and afterwards, “shall save;” is as it were a sort of exposition in what manner He shall judge. For to this end He shall judge, that He may save, that is, may sever from those that are to be destroyed and condemned, those to whom He giveth “salvation ready to be revealed at the” last time. …
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).