Psalms 94:9
As in the provocation, according to the day of temptation in the wilderness: where your fathers tempted me, they proved me, and saw my works.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- sicut in irritatione, secundum diem tentationis in deserto, ubi tentaverunt me patres vestri : probaverunt me, et viderunt opera mea.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὗ ἐπείρασαν οἱ πατέρες ὑμῶν, ἐδοκίμασαν καὶ ἴδοσαν τὰ ἔργα μου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 95:9
- אֲשֶׁ֣ר נִ֭סּוּנִי אֲבוֹתֵיכֶ֑ם בְּ֝חָנ֗וּנִי גַּם רָא֥וּ פָעֳלִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Provocation, (irritatione.) Roman Breviary exacerbatione. Hebrew meriba, "contradiction," (St. Jerome; Haydock) at Raphidim; (Exodus xvii. 7.) unless this be styled temptation, (Massa) and the former provocation was that at Cades, Numbers xx. 13. (Calmet)
The Israelites murmured frequently. But that rebellion which took place at the return of the spies, and which causes God to swear that the guilty should never enter the land of promise, seems to be chiefly meant, Numbers xiv. (Berthier)
They murmured on account of the desire of water and flesh-meat, though they were abundantly supplied with manna, which answered every purpose. Thus some require to communicate under both kinds, as if one did not contain as much as both. (Worthington)
Proved me; to know by experience if I were so powerful as to work miracles; and I condescended to gratify them, (Calmet) or I have done it already. (Menochius)
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 Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XCV
11. “As in the provocation, and in the day of temptation in the wilderness, where your fathers proved Me” ( ver. 9 ). Let such be no more your fathers: imitate them not. They were your fathers, but if ye do not imitate them, they shall not be your fathers: yet as ye were born of them, they were your fathers. And if the heathen who came from the ends of the earth, in the words of Jeremias, “The Gentiles shall come unto Thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our forefathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit:” if the heathen forsook their idols, to come to the God of Israel; ought Israel whom their own God led from Egypt through the Red Sea, wherein He overwhelmed their pursuing foes; whom He led out into the wilderness, fed with manna, never took His rod from correcting them, never deprived them of the blessings of His mercy; ought they to d …
St John Chrysostom An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall, Letter I
6. For such is the loving-kindness of God; He never turns his face away from a sincere repentance, but if any one has pushed on to the very extremity of wickedness, and chooses to return thence towards the path of virtue, God accepts and welcomes, and does everything so as to restore him to his former position. And He does what is yet more merciful; for even should any one not manifest complete repentance, he does not pass by one which is small and insignificant, but assigns a great reward even to this; which is evident from what Esaias the prophet says concerning the people of the Jews, speaking on this wise: “On account of his sin I put him to pain for a little while, and smote him, and turned my face away from him, and he was pained, and walked sorrowfully, and then I healed him, and comforted him.” And we might cite as another witness that most ungodly king, who was given over to sin …
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).