Psalms 9:108
He sitteth in ambush with the rich in private places, that he may kill the innocent.
Open Psalms 9:108 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine) shown from Psalms 9:29
- Sedet in insidiis cum divitibus in occultis, ut interficiat innocentem.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Psalms 9:29
- ἐνκάθηται ἐνέδρᾳ μετὰ πλουσίων ἐν ἀποκρύφοις ἀποκτεῖναι ἀθῷον· οἱ ὀφθαλμοὶ αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν πένητα ἀποβλέπουσιν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 10:8
- יֵשֵׁ֤ב בְּמַאְרַ֬ב חֲצֵרִ֗ים בַּֽ֭מִּסְתָּרִים יַהֲרֹ֣ג נָקִ֑י עֵ֝ינָ֗יו לְֽחֵלְכָ֥ה יִצְפֹּֽנוּ
Haydock's commentary
Rich. St. Jerome, "in the porches," is equivalent. Moderns translate, "villages," which Houbigant would change for a word signifying "ditches," without necessity. (Berthier)
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 X
6. “He lieth in ambush with the rich” ( ver. 8 ). What rich, but those whom he will load with this world’s gifts? And he is therefore said to lie in ambush with them, because he will display their false happiness to deceive men; who, when with a perverted will they desire to be such as they, and seek not the good things eternal, will fall into his snares. “That in the dark he may kill the innocent.” “In the dark,” I suppose, is said, where it is not easily understood what should be sought, or what avoided. Now to kill the innocent, is of an innocent to make one guilty.
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Heliodorus, Monk
4. But all this, you argue, only touches the case of martyrs. Ah! my brother, you are mistaken, you are mistaken, if you suppose that there is ever a time when the Christian does not suffer persecution. Then are you most hardly beset when you know not that you are beset at all. “Our adversary as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,” and do you think of peace? “He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor. …