Psalms 77:31
And the wrath of God came upon them. And he slew the fat ones amongst them, and brought down the chosen men of Israel.
Open Psalms 77:31 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et ira Dei ascendit super eos : et occidit pingues eorum, et electos Israël impedivit.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ὀργὴ τοῦ θεοῦ ἀνέβη ἐπ᾽ αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀπέκτεινεν ἐν τοῖς πλείοσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἐκλεκτοὺς τοῦ Ἰσραὴλ συνεπόδισεν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 78:31
- וְאַ֤ף אֱלֹהִ֨ים עָ֘לָ֤ה בָהֶ֗ם וַֽ֭יַּהֲרֹג בְּמִשְׁמַנֵּיהֶ֑ם וּבַחוּרֵ֖י יִשְׂרָאֵ֣ל הִכְרִֽיעַ
Haydock's commentary
Israel. St. Jerome applies this to those who receive unworthily, particularly if they be priests, 1 Corinthians xi. 29. (Calmet)
God selected the most guilty (Berthier) having allowed them to feast for a whole month. (Worthington)
Then he brought down by death, or "hindered," as it were, "by shackles," (Septuagint) the most valiant. (Haydock)
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 LXXVIII
16. But as to unbelievers, being a crooked and embittering generation, as it were, while the morsel was yet in their mouths, “the anger of God went up upon them, and it slew among the most of them” ( ver. 31 ): that is, the most of them, or as some copies have it, “the fat ones of them,” which however in the Greek copies which we had, we did not find. But if this be the truer reading, what else must be understood by “the fat ones of them,” than men mighty in pride, concerning whom is said, “their iniquity shall come forth as if out of fat”? “And the elect of Israel He fettered.” Even there there were elect, with whose faith the generation crooked and embittering was not mixed. But they were fettered, so that they might in no sort profit them for whom they desired that they might provide from a fatherly affection. …