Bellarmine on Psalm 6: Verses 5-6

We continue our series posting a commentary on the first of the Penitential Psalms, Psalm 6, written by St Robert Bellarmine (1542-1641). Where footnotes are included, the text follows each verse.

The Latin is reproduced courtesy of the Digital Collection site  - UANL and is accompanied by my fairly literal translation. The Scripture excerpts (Douay Rheims/Vulgate) are taken from the DRBO site but the verse numbering follows that of Bellarmine’s Latin text.

Verse 5

For there is no one in death, that is mindful of thee: and who shall confess to thee in hell?

Quoniam non est in morte qui memor sit tui; in inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi?

Here is the fourth argument, drawn from the glory of God. I ask, he says, not to be rebuked in Thy indignation, because if that were to happen, I would undoubtedly be condemned to eternal death; and thus (in me) Thy memory and praise would perish. For the damned in Hell are not mindful of God that they might praise Him, neither is there anyone in Hell who confesses the Lord.that is, who praise the Lord, confessing His benefits and all that makes Him worthy of remembrance. There are some who understand the text here to be about bodily death, and by infernum (the lower regions/Hell) they understand the tomb; they make the sense to be that the dead, lying in the tomb, do not praise God, neither are they mindful of Him, because they do not feel anything; they cite the words of Ezechias[1] in Isaias xxxviiii|: “ For hell shall not confess to thee, neither shall death praise thee:”and it seems that Ezechias sought to be freed from the danger of bodily death.[2] But assuredly this text of Ezechias must be understood to concern eternal death and the Hell of the damned. For even if Ezechias feared bodily death, he also feared eternal death; and he gave thanks to God in this   

canticle for he understood the gift of bodily health was also a sign of divine benevolence that his sins had been forgiven and that he had been delivered from the danger of Hell; whence he says: “but Thou hast rescued my soul, that it may not perish; Thou hast cast behind Thee all my sins, for Hell doth not confess Thee, neither doth death praise Thee; those who fall into the lake do not look for Thy truth.” For truly, if these words are to be understood as concerning bodily death alone, the arguments would lead to a dead end. For even though those who are bodily dead and lying in the tomb do not praise God, their souls are yet living and give praise to God; and even those bodies lying in the tomb look for the truth of God, that is, God’s trustworthiness about the promised resurrection. Only those who fall into the lake of eternal damnation do not look for the truth of God; neither do they remember the goodness of God, nor do they praise Him, nor will they in the future. This is how St Jerome in his Commentary on Isaiah , as well as other fathers, understand this text of Ezechias.

[1] The commonly received computation reckons his reign from 726 to 697 B.C. In character and policy, Ezechias was pious and agreeable to God. He was a strenuous civil and religious reformer, and on this account the sacred writer compares him to King David. The events of his reign are related in the Fourth Book of Kings, and also in the parallel account in the Second Book of Chronicles.

[2] The commonly received computation reckons his reign from 726 to 697 B.C. In character and policy, Ezechias was pious and agreeable to God. He was a strenuous civil and religious reformer, and on this account the sacred writer compares him to King David. The events of his reign are related in the Fourth Book of Kings, and also in the parallel account in the Second Book of Chronicles.

Verse 6

I have laboured in my groanings, every night I will wash my bed: I will water my couch with my tears.

Laboravi in gemitu meo; lavabo per singulas noctes lectum meum; lacrimis meis stratum meum rigabo.

The Prophet draws the fifth argument from fruits worthy of penance. For as the Apostle says in I Corinthians: “ But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged,”[1] that is, if we would condemn and punish ourselves, we would not be condemned or punished by the Lord. For God spares those who do not spare themselves. He says therefore that he not only understands and detests his sin but that he is punishing and will punish himself as far as his powers allow him. “ I have laboured,” he says, “in my groanings,” that is, I have wept with such great grief for my sin that I am weary, and yet I still do not cease. For, “every night I will wash my bed,” that is, every night instead of resting or sleeping, I shall weep copiously for my sins and water my couch with tears. The abundance and the duration of the tears should be noted at this place in the text. Now in Hebrew,  they have for “I will wash” asche, I will make to swim, as even St Jerome translates; and even the Latin words lavabo/I will wash does not signify the effusion of a few teardrops but of such a quantity that the bed can be awash with them. The word rigabo/I will water suggests a huge quantity of water pouring in rivulets. But where it says, per singulas noctes / every night, is ambiguous in Hebrew. For it can mean for the whole night through, as St Jerome translates; it can also mean every night, and this is what the Septuagint translators put; Either is wondrous and perhaps they can both be true, that is, for a long time, every night throughout the night he shed tears most copiously. This is a sight to be contemplated by those who have committed the gravest of sins and are scarcely able to shed a few teardrops when they seek forgiveness from God.

[1]  But if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. Quod si nosmetipsos dijudicaremus, non utique judicaremur. [I Cor. xi. 31]

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.