Psalms 74:5
I said to the wicked: Do not act wickedly: and to the sinners: Lift not up the horn.
Open Psalms 74:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixi iniquis : Nolite inique agere : et delinquentibus : Nolite exaltare cornu :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἶπα τοῖς παρανομοῦσιν μὴ παρανομεῖν, καὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτάνουσιν Μὴ ὑψοῦτε κέρας·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 75:5
- אָמַ֣רְתִּי לַֽ֭הוֹלְלִים אַל תָּהֹ֑לּוּ וְ֝לָרְשָׁעִ֗ים אַל תָּרִ֥ימוּ קָֽרֶן
Haydock's commentary
Wickedly. This is an epitome of Christian doctrine. (Worthington)
God had severely punished Nabuchodonosor, Baltassar, and the priests of Bel. Yet the people would not attend to these salutary admonitions.
Horn. By pride, (Worthington) which is the origin of all evil, (Haydock) and an offence pardoned by God with the greatest difficulty.
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 LXXV
7. We have heard now, brethren, that which day by day is not kept secret: let us hear now what He hath cried through these pillars.…He crieth what? “I have said to unjust men, Do not unjustly” ( ver. 4 ).…But already they have done, and they are guilty: already there hath flowed down the earth, and all they that dwell therein. Pricked to the heart were they that crucified Christ, they acknowledged their sin, they learned something of the Apostle, that they might not despair of the pardon of the Preacher. For as Physician He had come, and therefore had not come to the whole. “For there is no need,” He saith, “to the whole of a physician, but to them that are sick. I have not come to call righteous men, but sinners to repentance.” Therefore, “I have said to unjust men, Do not unjustly.” They heard not. …
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How those are to be admonished who abstain not from the sins which they bewail, and those who, abstaining from them, bewail them not
For it is not as if God were fed by our torments: but He heals the diseases of our transgressions by medicines opposed to them that we, who have departed from Him delighted by pleasures, may return to Him embittered by tears; and that, having fallen by running loose in unlawful things, we may rise by restraining ourselves even in lawful ones; and that the heart which mad joy had flooded may be burnt clean by wholesome sadness: and that what the elation of pride had wounded may be cured by the dejection of a humble life. For hence it is written, I said unto the wicked, Deal not wickedly; and to the transgressors, lift not up the horn ( Ps. lxxiv. 5 ). For transgressors lift up the horn, if they in no wise humble themselves to penitence after knowledge of their iniquity. Hence again it is said, A bruised and humbled heart God doth not despise ( Ps. l. 19 ). …