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and all shall grow old like a garment; and like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not fail. But also all human striving is vanity of vanities, and, all things are vanity, every man living, or, every man set up, according to Aquila; or, every man standing, according to Symmachus. For he who is now standing and he who is still carrying out this mortal life in the present time would be vanity. If, therefore, there were not laid up for men a hope of immortality, and of eternal life and of the kingdom of heaven, every living man would reasonably be considered to be something vain. And now what is my patient endurance, is it not the Lord? But Symmachus rendered the aforementioned words thus: Now therefore what do I expect, O Master? my waiting is for you. Deliver me from all my transgressions; do not make me a reproach to the foolish. I became mute, I will not open my mouth; for you have done it. After all that has been said before, he says, nothing is left for me, O Lord, but to expect you and to have my 23.349 hopes in you; for from you is the subsistence of the soul. Therefore I pray and beseech to be freed from the evils here, and to be delivered from my iniquities. For I have once fallen in with a foolish one, about whom I also spoke above: When the sinner stood up against me, I was deafened, and was humbled, and kept silent from good things. Immediately, then, having been given over to foolishness, I have become a reproach; reasonably, therefore, as if contending with my knowledge for what I have sinned, I became deaf and did not open my mouth, because you have done it. For your fear made me deaf, striking me for what I have sinned, and silencing me so that I might not speak. But instead of, you have made me a reproach to the foolish, Aquila says, do not make me a reproach to one who flows away; and Symmachus, do not make me a reproach to the foolish; and the fifth edition: do not make me a reproach to the foolish. Which reveals the supplication of the sinner, beseeching not to be given over to the reproach of a foolish one. But if the Lord himself gives the sinner over to a foolish one, to be reproached by him, you might say this also happens for the benefit of the one being reproached, so that, being mistreated, he might make a greater confession for his sins; which David thought it right not to suffer, as one doing of himself all things pleasing to God. Remove your scourges from me; for from the hand of your strength I have failed; in rebukes for iniquity you have disciplined man, and have made his soul melt away like a spider's web, surely every man is vanity; Diapsalma. Indeed in the psalm before this he presented himself to converting blows, like some well-disposed student to a teacher; wherefore he said: I am ready for scourges. But since he had now had sufficient experience of the scourges tormenting him persistently, he beseeches that they cease henceforth, and that the scourges stop at this point, and he confesses next, saying: From the strength of your hand I have failed. And concerning this hand it was also said above: You have laid your hand heavily upon me. Then he teaches that the hand did not discipline in vain, nor did it scourge to no purpose, but for the benefit of the sinner; wherefore he says: In rebukes for iniquity you have disciplined man. For on account of the iniquity that was committed and because of the sin that was committed, rebuking the one being disciplined you both brought on the scourges and your aforementioned hand; and by these very things you also caused the soul of the one being disciplined to melt away, being humbled and made thin for its own benefit. For in the time that he lived luxuriously, he slipped into sins, according to that: Jacob ate and drank, and the beloved kicked, he grew broad and grew thick, and he departed from God who nourished him. Therefore, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, the flesh is delivered to destruction; and when it is punished, the soul melts away, becoming emaciated like a spider's web; wherefore he says: And you have made his soul melt away like a spider's web; and he adds: Surely every man is vanity, again lamenting him who toils and suffers in this life randomly and in vain.

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καὶ πάντες ὡς ἱμάτιον παλαιωθήσονται· καὶ ὡσεὶ περιβολαὶ ἑλίξεις αὐτοὺς, καὶ ἀλλαγήσονται. Σὺ δὲ ὁ αὐτὸς εἶ, καὶ τὰ ἔτη σου οὐκ ἐκλείψουσιν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσα ἡ παρὰ ἀνθρώποις σπουδὴ ματαιότης ματαιοτήτων ἐστὶ, καὶ, τὰ σύμπαντα ματαιότης, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ζῶν, ἢ, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἐστηλωμένος, κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν· ἢ, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἑστὼς, κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον. Ὁ γὰρ νῦν ἑστὼς καὶ ὁ κατὰ τὸν παρόντα χρόνον τὴν θνητὴν ἔτι ζωὴν διεξανύων ματαιότης ἂν εἴη. Εἰ γοῦν μὴ ἀπέκειτό τις ἀνθρώποις ἐλπὶς ἀθανασίας, καὶ ζωῆς αἰωνίου βασιλείας τε οὐρανῶν, εὐλόγως ἂν ἐνομίσθη μάταιόν τι εἶναι πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ζῶν. Καὶ νῦν τίς ἡ ὑπομονή μου, οὐχὶ Κύριος; Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτως τὰ προκείμενα ἐξέδωκε ῥητά· Νῦν οὖν τί προσδοκῶ, ∆έσποτα; ἡ ἀναμονή μου εἰς σέ ἐστιν. Ἀπὸ πασῶν τῶν ἀθεσιῶν μου ἐξέλου με, ἐπονείδιστον ἄφρονι μὴ τάξῃς με. Ἄλαλος ἐγενόμην, οὐκ ἀνοίξεις στόμα μου· σὺ γὰρ ἐποίησας. Μετὰ τὰ προλελεγμένα πάντα, φησὶν, οὐδέν μοι λείπεται, ὦ Κύριε, ἢ σὲ προσδοκᾷν καὶ εἰς σὲ τὰς 23.349 ἐλπίδας ἔχειν· παρὰ σοῦ γὰρ τῆς ψυχῆς ἡ ὑπόστασίς ἐστι. ∆ιὸ δέομαι καὶ ἱκετεύω ἐλευθερωθῆναί με τῶν τῇδε κακῶν, καὶ τῶν ἀνομιῶν μου ῥυσθῆναι. Ἅπαξ γὰρ περιπέπτωκα ἄφρονι, περὶ οὗ καὶ ἀνωτέρω ἔλεγον· Ἐν τῷ συστῆναι τὸν ἁμαρτωλὸν ἐνώπιόν μου, ἐκωφώθην, καὶ ἐταπεινώθην καὶ ἐσίγησα ἐξ ἀγαθῶν. Αὐτίκα γοῦν ἀφροσύνῃ παραδοθεὶς γέγονα ἐπονείδιστος· εἰκότως οὖν, ὡς ἂν γνωσιμαχῶν ἐφ' οἷς ἥμαρτον, ἐκωφώθην καὶ οὐκ ἤνοιξα τὸ στόμα μου, ὅτι σὺ ἐποίησας. Ὁ γὰρ σὸς φόβος κωφῶσαί με ἐποίησε, πλήττων με ἐφ' οἷς ἥμαρτον, καὶ κατασιγάζων πρὸς τὸ μὴ φθέγγεσθαι. Ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ, ὄνειδος ἄφρονι ἔδωκάς με, ὁ μὲν Ἀκύλας, ὄνειδος ἀποῤῥέοντι, φησὶ, μὴ θῇς με· ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος, ἐπονείδιστον ἄφρονι μὴ δῷς με· ἡ δὲ πέμπτη ἔκδοσις· ὄνειδος ἄφρονι μὴ δῷς με. Ὅπερ παράκλησιν ἐμφαίνει τοῦ ἡμαρτηκότος, ἱκετεύοντος μὴ παραδοθῆναι εἰς ὀνειδισμὸν ἄφρονι. Εἰ δ' αὐτὸς ὁ Κύριος παραδίδωσιν ἄφρονι τὸν ἡμαρτηκότα, ὀνειδίζεσθαι πρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ τοῦτο ἂν εἴποις ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ γίνεσθαι τοῦ ὀνειδιζομένου, ὡς ἂν, κακούμενος, μείζονα ποιήσοιτο τὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς ἡμαρτημένοις ἐξομολόγησιν· ὅπερ ἠξίου μὴ παθεῖν ὁ ∆αυῒδ, ὡς πάντα πράττων τὰ τῷ Θεῷ ἀρεστὰ ἐξ ἑαυτοῦ. Ἀπόστησον ἀπ' ἐμοῦ τὰς μάστιγάς σου· ἀπὸ γὰρ τῆς χειρὸς τῆς ἰσχύος σου ἐγὼ ἐξέλιπον· ἐν ἐλεγμοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀνομίας ἐπαίδευσας ἄνθρωπον, καὶ ἐξέτηξας ὡς ἀράχνην τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ, πλὴν μάτην πᾶς ἄνθρωπος· διάψαλμα. Ἐν μὲν τῷ πρὸ τούτου ψαλμῷ παρεῖχεν ἑαυτὸν ἐπιστρεπτικαῖς πληγαῖς, οἷά τις εὐγνώμων μαθητὴς διδασκάλῳ· διὸ ἔλεγεν· Ἐγὼ εἰς μάστιγας ἕτοιμος. Ἐπεὶ δὲ λοιπὸν αὐτάρκως τῶν μαστίγων ἐπεπειρᾶτο ἐπιμόνως αὐτὸν αἰκιζομένων, ἱκετεύει τοῦ λοιποῦ παύσασθαι, καὶ μέχρι τούτου στῆναι τὰς μάστιγας, ὁμολογεῖ τε ἑξῆς λέγων· Ἀπὸ τῆς ἰσχύος χειρός σου ἐγὼ ἐξέλιπον. Περὶ δὲ τῆς χειρὸς ταύτης καὶ ἀνωτέρω ἐλέγετο· Ἐπεστήριξας ἐπ' ἐμὲ τὴν χεῖρά σου. Εἶτα διδάσκει, ὅτι μὴ μάτην ἡ χεὶρ ἐπαίδευε, μηδὲ εἰς ἀργὸν ἐμαστίγου, ἀλλ' ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ τοῦ ἡμαρτηκότος· διό φησιν· Ἐν ἐλεγμοῖς ὑπὲρ ἀνομίας ἐπαίδευσας ἄνθρωπον. Ὑπὲρ γὰρ τῆς παραχθείσης ἀνομίας καὶ διὰ τὸ παραχθὲν ἁμάρτημα ἐλέγχων τὸν παιδευόμενον καὶ τὰς μάστιγας ἐπῆγες καὶ τὴν χεῖρά σου προλεχθεῖσαν· τούτοις δὲ αὐτοῖς καὶ τὴν ψυχὴν τοῦ παιδευομένου ἐξέτηξας, ταπεινουμένην καὶ λεπτυνομένην ἐπ' ὠφελείᾳ τῇ αὐτῆς. Καθ' ὃν γὰρ ἐτρύφα χρόνον, εἰς ἁμαρτίας ἐξώλισθε, κατὰ τό· Ἔφαγε καὶ ἔπιεν Ἰακὼβ, καὶ ἀπελάκτισεν ὁ ἠγαπημένος, ἐπλατύνθη καὶ ἐπαχύνθη, καὶ ἀπέστη ἀπὸ Θεοῦ τοῦ τρέφοντος αὐτόν. ∆ιὸ, ἵνα τὸ πνεῦμα σωθῇ ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου, ἡ σὰρξ παραδέδοται εἰς ὄλεθρον· ἧς τιμωρουμένης, ἐκτήκεται ψυχὴ ἐξισχνουμένη δίκην ἀράχνης· διό φησι· Καὶ ἐξέτηξας ὡς ἀράχνην τὴν ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐπιλέγει· Πλὴν μάτην πᾶς ἄνθρωπος, πάλιν τὸν ἐν τῷ βίῳ τούτῳ εἰκῆ καὶ μάτην μοχθοῦντα καὶ κακοπαθοῦντα ταλανίζων.