Psalms 98:4
And the king's honour loveth judgment. Thou hast prepared directions: thou hast done judgment and justice in Jacob.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et honor regis judicium diligit. Tu parasti directiones ; judicium et justitiam in Jacob tu fecisti.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τιμὴ βασιλέως κρίσιν ἀγαπᾷ· σὺ ἡτοίμασας εὐθύτητας, κρίσιν καὶ δικαιοσύνην ἐν Ἰακὼβ σὺ ἐποίησας.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 99:4
- וְעֹ֥ז מֶלֶךְ֮ מִשְׁפָּ֪ט אָ֫הֵ֥ב אַ֭תָּה כּוֹנַ֣נְתָּ מֵישָׁרִ֑ים מִשְׁפָּ֥ט וּ֝צְדָקָ֗ה בְּיַעֲקֹ֤ב אַתָּ֬ה עָשִֽׂיתָ
Haydock's commentary
Loveth judgment. Requireth discretion. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "the king's strength loveth judgment." He does nothing unjustly, as the enemy is forced to confess. (Calmet)
This is the highest glory of a king. (Theodoret)
God requires that we should honour him, by correcting our faults. (St. Augustine)
Directions. Most right and just laws to direct men. (Challoner)
Jacob. There God principally instructed mankind, and punished the perverse. Other nations he seemed to have left to themselves. (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 Justin Martyr Dialogue with Trypho, Chapter LXIV. Justin adduces other
To this I replied, “If I were to be quarrelsome and light-minded like you, Trypho, I would no longer continue to converse with you, since you are prepared not to understand what has been said, but only to return some captious answer; but now, since I fear the judgment of God, I do not state an untimely opinion concerning any one of your nation, as to whether or not some of them may be saved by the grace of the Lord of Sabaoth. Therefore, although you act wrongfully, I shall continue to reply to any proposition you shall bring forward, and to any contradiction which you make; and, in fact, I do the very same to all men of every nation, who wish to examine along with me, or make inquiry at me, regarding this subject. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV, Chapter XXII. The answer on the way to keep control over abstinence
Theonas : If we weigh everything that we do, by a reasonable judgment of the mind, and on the purity of our heart always consult not the opinions of other people but our own conscience, that interval for refreshment is sure not to interfere with our proper strictness, if only, as was said, our pure mind impartially considers the right limits of indulgence and abstinence, and fairly checks excess in either, and with real discrimination discerns whether the weight of the delicacies is a burden upon our spirits, or whether too much austerity in abstaining weighs down the other side, i.e., that of the body, and either depresses or raises that side which it sees to be raised or weighed down. …