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EXPLANATION OF PSALM 119. 1. "A Song of Ascents." Theodotion has "a song of the ascents"; but

Symmachus and Aquila, for 80.1876 the ascents. The ascents, or the degrees, however, signify the return of the captive people from Babylon. For the grace of the Spirit, knowing beforehand both the captivity and the future freedom, has foretold both these and those things; contriving a benefit for them, and offering a gain from it to us. But each of the ascents does not prophesy the same things, but one the misfortunes in Babylon, another the good tidings of the return; another the joy along the way; another the wars that happened after the return; another the building of the temple. And the variety of the prophecy drives out the satiety of the melody. But each of these psalms has been fashioned into a chorus of the saints who lived at that time. For the prophetic word introduces them as saying the things that are set forth. However, the first of the ascents both explains the misfortunes and the divine favor. "To the Lord in my affliction I cried, and he heard me." And the introduction taught the magnitude of the sorrow, and the excess of divine love for mankind. For being grieved, he says, I besought the Master, and enjoyed his favor; then he says also what words he used in his prayer. 2. "O Lord, deliver my soul from unjust lips, and from a deceitful tongue." I beseech, he says, to be delivered from those who unjustly plot and use deceitful tricks. Such were the bitter accusers concerning Ananias, who had set traps for Daniel concerning his prayer. 3, 4. "What shall be given to you, and what shall be added to you, for a deceitful tongue? The sharpened arrows of the mighty one, with the coals of the desolate." Here the grace of the Spirit encourages the despondent, and shows the just sentence being passed against those who use deceit. For he calls God the mighty one of all; and the arrows of the mighty one, the sharpness of the punishments; from a metaphor of arrows being shot, and easily cutting the air. And coals of the desolate, the severity of the punishment, and its consuming and desolating nature. For such is the nature of fire; instead of, Do not be disheartened when struck by an unjust tongue; for the punishments sent by the just judge are ready, and imitate the energy of sharp arrows and desolating coals. 5. "Woe is me, for my sojourning is prolonged." These things, he says, I said while praying, and hearing them the lover of mankind took pity, and he calls the life in a foreign land sojourning. And the seventieth year is reasonably considered long; for the Prophet said that the complete life of men is of such a length; "For the days, he says, of our years are in them 80.1877 seventy years." - "I have dwelt with the tents of Kedar." Kedar was the second son of Ishmael, and his descendants have dwelt not far from Babylon until this day. Since, therefore, from the beginning they were disposed oppositely to one another; "For cast out, he says, the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with my son Isaac;" they reasonably lament themselves, as having fallen from their former freedom, living near the half-slaves, and being compelled to serve. 2. "My soul has sojourned for a long time." Long, he says, is the time of the sojourning. "With those who hated peace, I was peaceable; when I spoke to them, they made war on me without a cause." Here he teaches the wickedness of the Babylonians; for having, he says, nothing to accuse them of, they plotted against them, and treated those who embraced peace as enemies.

EXPLANATION OF PSALM 120.

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ΕΡΜΗΝ. ΤΟΥ ΡΙΘʹ ΨΑΛΜΟΥ. αʹ. "Ὠδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν." Ὁ Θεοδοτίων ᾆσμα τῶν ἀναβάσεων· ὁ δὲ

Σύμμαχος καὶ ὁ Ἀκύλας, εἰς 80.1876 τὰς ἀναβάσεις. ∆ηλοῦσι μέντοι αἱ ἀναβάσεις, ἢ οἱ ἀναβαθμοὶ, τοῦ αἰχμαλωτευθέντος λαοῦ τὴν ἀπὸ Βαβυλῶνος ἐπάνοδον. Προειδυῖα γὰρ ἡ χάρις τοῦ Πνεύματος, καὶ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν, καὶ τὴν ἐσομένην ἐλευθερίαν, καὶ ταῦτα κἀκεῖνα προείρηκε· κἀκεί νων ὠφέλειαν μηχανωμένη, καὶ ἡμῖν τὸ ἐντεῦθεν προσφέρουσα κέρδος. Οὐ τὰ αὐτὰ δὲ ἕκαστος τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν προθεσπίζει, ἀλλὰ ὁ μὲν τὰς ἐν Βαβυλῶνι συμφορὰς, ὁ δὲ τῆς ἐπανόδου τὰ εὐαγγέλια· ὁ δὲ τὴν κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν εὐφροσύνην· ἄλλος τοὺς μετὰ τὴν ἐπάνοδον γεγενημένους πολέμους· ἕτερος τοῦ ναοῦ τὴν οἰκοδομήν. Καὶ τὸ ποικίλον τῆς προφητείας ἐξελαύ νει τῆς μελῳδίας τὸν κόρον. Ἕκαστος δὲ τούτων ἐσχημάτισται τῶν ψαλμῶν εἰς τὸν τῶν τηνικαῦτα γε γενημένων ἁγίων χορόν. Ἐκείνους γὰρ ὁ προφητικὸς εἰσάγει λόγος τὰ προκείμενα λέγοντας. Ὁ μέντοι πρῶ τος τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν, καὶ τὰς συμφορὰς ἐξηγεῖται, καὶ τὴν θείαν εὐμένειαν. "Πρὸς Κύριον ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαί με ἐκέκραξα, καὶ εἰσήκουσέ μου." Καὶ τὸ μέγεθος τῆς ἀνίας ἐδίδαξε τὸ προοίμιον, καὶ τὴν τῆς θείας φιλανθρωπίας ὑπερβολήν. Ἀνιώμενος γὰρ, φησὶν, ἐδεήθην τοῦ ∆εσπότου, καὶ τῆς εὐμενείας ἀπήλαυσα· εἶτα λέγει καὶ τίσιν ἐχρήσατο λόγοις δεόμενος. βʹ. "Κύριε, ῥῦσαι τὴν ψυχήν μου ἀπὸ χειλέων ἀδίκων, καὶ ἀπὸ γλώσσης δολίας." Ἱκετεύω, φησὶ, τῶν ἀδίκως ἐπιβουλευόντων καὶ δολεραῖς κεχρημέ νων ἀπάταις ἀπαλλαγῆναι. Τοιοῦτοι ἦσαν περὶ τῆς εὐχῆς πάγας τῷ ∆ανιὴλ τεθεικότες, οἱ πικροὶ τῶν κατὰ τὸν Ἀνανίαν κατήγοροι. γʹ, δʹ. "Τί δοθείη σοι, καὶ τί προστεθείη σοι πρὸς γλῶσσαν δολίαν; Τὰ βέλη τοῦ δυνατοῦ ἠκονημένα, σὺν τοῖς ἄνθραξι τοῖς ἐρημικοῖς." Ἡ χάρις τοῦ Πνεύ ματος ἐνταῦθα τοὺς ἀθυμοῦντας ψυχαγωγεῖ, καὶ τὴν δικαίαν ψῆφον ὑποδείκνυσιν ἐκφερομένην κατὰ τῶν κεχρημένων τῷ δόλῳ. ∆υνατὸν μὲν γὰρ καλεῖ τὸν τῶν ὅλων Θεόν· βέλη δὲ δυνατοῦ, τῶν τιμωριῶν τὴν ὀξύτη τα· ἐκ μεταφορᾶς τῶν ἐφιεμένων βελῶν, καὶ ῥᾳδίως τὸν ἀέρα τεμνόντων. Ἄνθρακας δὲ ἐρημικοὺς, τὸ τῆς τιμωρίας σφοδρόν τε, καὶ δαπανητικὸν, καὶ ἐρημο ποιόν. Τοιαύτη γὰρ τοῦ πυρὸς ἡ φύσις· ἀντὶ τοῦ, Μὴ ἀθύμει ὑπὸ τῆς ἀδίκου γλώττης βαλλόμενος· εὐτρεπεῖς γὰρ αἱ παρὰ τοῦ δικαίου κριτοῦ πεμπόμεναι τιμω ρίαι, καὶ βελῶν ὀξύτητα, καὶ ἀνθράκων ἐρημοποιῶν μιμούμεναι τὴν ἐνέργειαν. εʹ. "Οἴ μοι, ὅτι ἡ παροικία μου ἐμακρύνθη." Ταῦτα, φησὶν, ἔλεγον προσευχόμενος, καὶ τούτων ἀκούσας ὁ φιλάνθρωπος ᾤκτειρε, παροικίαν δὲ καλεῖ τὴν ἐν τῇ ἀλλοτρίᾳ διαγωγήν. Ὁ δὲ ἑβδομηκοστὸς χρόνος μακρὸς εἰκότως νενόμισται· τοσαύτην γὰρ τὴν τελείαν τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὁ Προφήτης ἔφη ζωήν· "Αἱ ἡμέραι γὰρ, φησὶ, τῶν ἐτῶν ἡμῶν ἐν αὐτοῖς 80.1877 ἑβδομήκοντα ἔτη." - "Κατεσκήνωσα μετὰ τῶν σκηνωμάτων Κηδάρ." Ὁ Κηδὰρ δεύτερος τοῦ Ἰσμαὴλ υἱὸς, οἱ δὲ τούτου ἀπόγονοι οὐ πόῤῥω τῆς Βαβυλῶνος μέχρι τήμερον ἐσκήνωνται. Ἐπειδὴ τοίνυν ἄνωθεν ἐναντίως διετέθησαν πρὸς ἀλλήλους· "Ἔκ βαλε γὰρ, φησὶ, τὴν παιδίσκην, καὶ τὸν υἱὸν αὐτῆς· οὐ γὰρ μὴ κληρονομήσῃ ὁ υἱὸς τῆς παιδίσκης μετὰ τοῦ υἱοῦ μου Ἰσαάκ· εἰκότως σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ὀλοφύ ρονται, ὡς τῆς μὲν προτέρας ἐκπεσόντες ἐλευθερίας, ἐγγὺς δὲ τῶν ἡμιδούλων διάγοντες, καὶ δουλεύειν ἠναγκασμένοι. ʹ. "Πολλὰ παρῴκησεν ἡ ψυχή μου." Μακρὸς, φησὶ, τῆς παροικίας ὁ χρόνος. "Μετὰ τῶν μισούντων τὴν εἰρήνην ἤμην εἰρηνικός· ὅταν ἐλάλουν αὐτοῖς, ἐπο λέμουν με δωρεάν." Ἐνταῦθα μὲν Βαβυλωνίων μοχθηρίαν διδάσκει· οὐδὲν γὰρ, φησὶν, ἔχοντες ἐγκα λεῖν ἐπεβούλευον, καὶ τοῖς εἰρήνην ἀσπαζομένοις ὡς πολεμίοις ἐχρήσαντο.

ΕΡΜΗΝ. ΤΟΥ ΡΚʹ ΨΑΛΜΟΥ.