Psalms 74:9
For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture. And he hath poured it out from this to that: but the dregs thereof are not emptied: all the sinners of the earth shall drink.
Open Psalms 74:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- quia calix in manu Domini vini meri, plenus misto. Et inclinavit ex hoc in hoc ; verumtamen fæx ejus non est exinanita : bibent omnes peccatores terræ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ποτήριον ἐν χειρὶ Κυρίου, οἴνου ἀκράτου πλῆρες κεράσματος, καὶ ἔκλινεν ἐκ τούτου εἰς τοῦτο· πλὴν ὁ τρυγίας αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἐξεκενώθη, καὶ πίονται πάντες οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ τῆς γῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 75:9
- כִּ֤י כ֪וֹס בְּֽיַד יְהוָ֡ה וְיַ֤יִן חָמַ֨ר מָ֥לֵא מֶסֶךְ֮ וַיַּגֵּ֪ר מִ֫זֶּ֥ה אַךְ שְׁ֭מָרֶיהָ יִמְצ֣וּ יִשְׁתּ֑וּ כֹּ֝֗ל רִשְׁעֵי אָֽרֶץ
Haydock's commentary
Drink. The just themselves shall suffer something. But their part will be comparatively the clear wine, while sinners shall have the dregs. Many suppose that God holds in his had two cups, which he mixes according to each one's deserts. So the Septuagint, Syriac, St. Augustine, &c., seem to intimate. Jupiter is thus represented with two barrels of goods and evils near his throne. (Homer, Iliad xxiv.)
But most interpreters suppose that only one chalice is here specified, filled with red wine, the sediment being reserved for sinners, though it was usually thrown away at feasts. Wine was mixed with water in those hot countries. (Calmet)
Yet here the mixture is of a different nature. (Haydock)
Fire, (Psalm x. 7.; Menochius) gall, brimestone, &c., compose the bitter chalice of the damned, who will never arrive at the term of their inexpressible misery. In this life, sinners are frequently punished: but their sufferings do not end here. They shall experience a variety of torments in heat and cold, Job xxiv. (Worthington) (Apocalypse xiv. 10., Isaias li. 17., and Ezechiel xxiii. 34.)
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 On Christian Doctrine, The Same Word Does Not Always Signify the Same Thing
36. Now the rule in regard to this variation has two forms. For things that signify now one thing and now another, signify either things that are contrary, or things that are only different. They signify contraries, for example, when they are used metaphorically at one time in a good sense, at another in a bad, as in the case of the leaven mentioned above. Another example of the same is that a lion stands for Christ in the place where it is said, “The lion of the tribe of Judah hath prevailed;” and again, stands for the devil where it is written, “Your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour.” In the same way the serpent is used in a good sense, “Be wise as serpents;” and again, in a bad sense, “The serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty.” Bread is used in a good sense, “I am the living bread which came down from heaven;” in a bad, “Bread eaten …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXV
10. “For the cup in the hand of the Lord of pure wine is full of mixed” ( ver. 8 ). Justly so. “And He hath poured out of this upon this man; nevertheless, the dreg thereof hath not been emptied; there shall drink all the sinners of earth.” Let us be somewhat recruited; there is here some obscurity.…The first question that meeteth us is this, “of pure wine it is full of mixed.” How “of pure,” if “of mixed”? But when he saith, “the cup in the hand of the Lord” (to men instructed in the Church of Christ I am speaking), ye ought not indeed to paint in your heart God as it were circumscribed with a human form, lest, though the temples are shut up, ye forge images in your hearts. This cup therefore doth signify something. We will find out this. But “in the hand of the Lord,” is, in the power of the Lord. For the hand of God is spoken of for the power of God. …
Theodoret Letters of the Blessed Theodoret, Bishop of Cyprus, To Theoctistus, Bishop of Berœa
He then who keeps these, according to the definition of the Lord, plainly fulfils the Law; and he who transgresses them is guilty of transgressing the whole Law. Let us then examine, before the exact and righteous tribunal of our conscience, whether we have fulfilled the divine commandments. Now the first is kept by him who guards the faith given by God in its integrity, who abominates its assailants as enemies of the truth and hates heartily all those who hate the beloved; and the second by him who most highly esteems the care of his neighbour and who, not only in prosperity but also in apparent misfortunes, observes the laws of friendship. …
St Gregory Nazianzen On the Death of His Father
25. We both believe in and hear of the dregs of the anger of God, the residuum of His dealings with those who deserve it: For the Lord is a God of vengeance. For although He is disposed by His kindness to gentleness rather than severity, yet He does not absolutely pardon sinners, lest they should be made worse by His goodness. Yet my father kept no grudge against those who provoked him, indeed he was absolutely uninfluenced by anger, although in spiritual things exceedingly overcome by zeal: except when he had been prepared and armed and set in hostile array against that which was advancing to injure him. So that this sweet disposition of his would not, as the saying goes, have been stirred by tens of thousands. …