Psalms 78:12
And render to our neighbours sevenfold in their bosom: the reproach wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.
Open Psalms 78:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et redde vicinis nostris septuplum in sinu eorum ; improperium ipsorum quod exprobraverunt tibi, Domine.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀπόδος τοῖς γείτοσιν ἡμῶν ἑπταπλάσια εἰς τὸν κόλπον αὐτῶν, τὸν ὀνειδισμὸν αὐτῶν ὃν ὠνείδισάν σε, κύριε.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 79:12
- וְהָ֘שֵׁ֤ב לִשְׁכֵנֵ֣ינוּ שִׁ֭בְעָתַיִם אֶל חֵיקָ֑ם חֶרְפָּ֘תָ֤ם אֲשֶׁ֖ר חֵרְפ֣וּךָ אֲדֹנָֽי
Haydock's commentary
Bosom. Punish them severely (Calmet) in this world. (St. Jerome)
Many of the surrounding nations were subdued by Nabuchodonosor, five years after he had conquered the Jews. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] x. 10.) (Jeremias xlix. 7., &c.)
Where a note speaks of the Jewish people, the Church teaches that the Passion 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).
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
Origen Origen's Commentary on Matthew, Chapter XXX
“ If thy brother sin against thee, go, shew him his fault between thee and him alone. ” He, then, who attends closely to the expression, in proof of the surpassing philanthropy of Jesus, will say, that as the words do not suggest a difference of sins, they will act in a singular manner and contrary to the goodness of Jesus, who supply the thought, that these words are to be understood as being limited in their application to lesser sins. But another, also attending closely to the expression, and not wishing to introduce these extraneous thoughts, nor admitting that it is spoken about every sin, will say, that he who commits those great sins is not a brother, even if he be called a brother, as the Apostle says, “If any one that is named a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, etc., with such an one not to eat;” for no one who is an idolater, or a fornicator, or covetous, i …
St Gregory Nazianzen On His Father's Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail
5. Tell us whence come such blows and scourges, and what account we can give of them. Is it some disordered and irregular motion or some unguided current, some unreason of the universe, as though there were no Ruler of the world, which is therefore borne along by chance, as is the doctrine of the foolishly wise, who are themselves borne along at random by the disorderly spirit of darkness? Or are the disturbances and changes of the universe, (which was originally constituted, blended, bound together, and set in motion in a harmony known only to Him Who gave it motion,) directed by reason and order under the guidance of the reins of Providence? Whence come famines and tornadoes and hailstorms, our present warning blow? Whence pestilences, diseases, earthquakes, tidal waves, and fearful things in the heavens? And how is the creation, once ordered for the enjoyment of men, their common and …
St Gregory Nazianzen On Pentecost
III. As to the honour paid to Seven there are many testimonies, but we will be content with a few out of the many. For instance, seven precious spirits are named; for I think Isaiah loves to call the activities of the Spirit spirits; and the Oracles of the Lord are purified seven times according to David, and the just is delivered from six troubles and in the seventh is not smitten. But the sinner is pardoned not seven times, but seventy times seven. And we may see it by the contrary also (for the punishment of wickedness is to be praised), Cain being avenged seven times, that is, punishment being exacted from him for his fratricide, and Lamech seventy times seven, because he was a murderer after the law and the condemnation. …