Psalms 94:10
Forty years long was I offended with that generation, and I said: These always err in heart.
Open Psalms 94:10 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quadraginta annis offensus fui generationi illi, et dixi : Semper hi errant corde.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τεσσεράκοντα ἔτη προσώχθισα τῇ γενεᾷ ἐκείνῃ, καὶ εἶπα Ἀεὶ πλανῶνται τῇ καρδίᾳ, καὶ αὐτοὶ οὐκ ἔγνωσαν τὰς ὁδούς μου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 95:10
- אַרְבָּ֘עִ֤ים שָׁנָ֨ה אָ֘ק֤וּט בְּד֗וֹר וָאֹמַ֗ר עַ֤ם תֹּעֵ֣י לֵבָ֣ב הֵ֑ם וְ֝הֵ֗ם לֹא יָדְע֥וּ דְרָכָֽי
Haydock's commentary
Offended. Hebrew and Septuagint, "disgusted." Roman Psalter, St. Augustine, &c., "I was very near to;" (Calmet) ready to punish, and eye-witness of their infidelity. St. Paul reads prosochthisa, infensus fui, "I was against, or disgusted with," and seems to refer the forty years to the Jews, who saw God's works. (Haydock)
But there is a variation in the Greek copies, as some omit, For which cause; and Hebrews iii. 10., and v. 17, intimates, that the indignation of God was roused for forty years, at intervals, as often as the people rebelled. (Berthier)
The apostle also plainly shews, that this psalm was written long after that period, and consequently not by Moses, as the Jews would now assert. He limiteth a certain day, saying in David: To-day, after so long a time, &c., Hebrews iv. 7. (Worthington)
Always. Hebrew, "a people of those who err in the heart are they." (Montanus) (Haydock)
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
Clement of Alexandria Exhortation to the Heathen, Chapter IX. “That Those Grievously Sin Who Despise or Neglect God’s Gracious Calling.”
I could adduce ten thousand Scriptures of which not “one tittle shall pass away,” without being fulfilled; for the mouth of the Lord the Holy Spirit hath spoken these things. “Do not any longer,” he says, “my son, despise the chastening of the Lord , nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him.” O surpassing love for man! Not as a teacher speaking to his pupils, not as a master to his domestics, nor as God to men, but as a father, does the Lord gently admonish his children. Thus Moses confesses that “he was filled with quaking and terror” while he listened to God speaking concerning the Word. …
St Peter of Alexandria Fragments from the Writings of Peter, Fragment V
3. Whether therefore the Jews erroneously sometimes celebrate their Passover according to the course of the moon in the month Phamenoth, or according to the intercalary month, every third year in the month Pharmuthi matters not to us. For we have no other object than to keep the remembrance of His Passion, and that at this very time; as those who were eye-witnesses of it have from the beginning handed down, before the Egyptians believed. For neither by observing the course of the moon do they necessarily celebrate it on the sixteenth day of Phamenoth, but once every three years in the month Pharmuthi; for from the beginning, and before the advent of Christ, they seem to have so done. Hence, when the Lord reproves them by the prophet, He says, “They do always err in their heart; and I have sworn in My wrath that they shall not enter into My rest.”
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XCV
12. “Forty years long was I very near unto this generation, and said, It is a people that do always err in their hearts; for they have not known My ways” ( ver. 10 ). The forty years have the same meaning as the word “always.” For that number forty indicates the fulness of ages, as if the ages were perfected in this number. Hence our Lord fasted forty days, forty days He was tempted in the desert, and forty days He was with His disciples after His resurrection. On the first forty days He showed us temptation, on the latter forty days consolation: since beyond doubt when we are tempted we are consoled. For His body, that is, the Church, must needs suffer temptations in this world: but that Comforter, who said, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world,” is not wanting. …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it 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).