Salmos 10
John Chrysostom · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Salmos 10:3
This is what the inspired author laments, that evil has so prevailed as to be something to be proud of and spoken openly about, and what is more regrettable, that it is shameless and not simply applauds itself for its achievements but also has others to applaud it. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:9
Salmos 10:4
Do you see the fruit of vice? Their light is extinguished, their thinking impaired, they are taken captive by wickedness. Just as the disabled person constantly falls into a pit, so too these people, since they do not have the fear of God before their eyes, are totally absorbed in vice—not a case of now in virtue and now in vice, but permanently in vice, mindful not of hell, or of the judgment to come or of accounts to be rendered. Instead, rejecting all these aids as though bridle and bit, they are like a ship without ballast that is at the mercy of winds and fierce billows with no one to guide their thinking. Do you see the wicked in the actual condition of vice having to give an account? After all, what is worse than an unbridled horse, a ship without ballast, a maimed individual? Yet more miserable than all these is the person living in vice, having extinguished the light coming from the fear of God and given over to captivity. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:9-10
Salmos 10:5
Do you see the folly? Do you see the unutterable ruin? Do you see the destruction gradually increasing? Do you see the things prized by the mindless, in reality full of deep misery, and now they sink from sight? Those people are applauded in their sins, commended in their wrongdoing. This is the first pitfall, sufficient to trip up the unwary. Hence it is much more necessary to welcome those who censure and correct us than those who applaud and flatter us to the point of destruction. The latter, in fact, prove the ruination of the stupid and impel them to worse evil—as though even by puffing up these sinners they led them on the way to folly. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:10
Salmos 10:6
What could be more stupid than this attitude in a human being, subject to death, caught up in affairs of the moment, subject to countless changes, to come up with such fantasies? Now, where did this spring from? From stupidity. You see, whenever a heedless person enjoys great prosperity, prevails over his enemies, is praised and admired, he proves more to be pitied than anyone. In fact, by not expecting any change he does not even cope with prosperity sensibly; but on falling on hard times he is disturbed and upset, being out of practice and heedless.… These people … once corrupted, have no regard for human limitations but consider their state immovable on account of their success—the basis of ultimate folly and destruction and the occasion of utter ruin. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:10
Salmos 10:10
Just as the inspired author describes them as a wild beast, so he talks about them in those terms, making a show of their tricks, ambushes, schemes. What could be more pitiful than this, what could be more desperate, to feel the need of the possessions of the poor? So shall we call these people rich, tell me?… Do you see their moral bankruptcy and cruelty? Moral bankruptcy, because they lust after the goods of the poor; cruelty, because far from being moved by their plight they aggravate their penury when they should pity it and ameliorate it. Still, they do not get up to this with impunity: when they exert their power, when they seem to prevail, when they think they are unassailable, then it is they perish, so that the inventiveness of God, the patience of the poor, the errors of these miscreants and the forbearance of God's long-suffering may come to light. Hence it is that justice does not follow close on their heels, since God in his long-suffering summons them to repentance; but when they profit nothing from the long-suffering, then he admonishes them with retribution. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:10
Salmos 10:14
What is the meaning of "up to the point of their being given into your hands"? It is a rather human expression, but what it means is this: You bide your time, you are forbearing, with the result that they are given over to the excess of wickedness. You are capable, of course, of destroying and subduing them from the outset; yet beyond telling is the ocean of your forbearance, observing them, not pursuing them but awaiting their movement to repentance. If, however, they prove unresponsive, then you will punish them when they profit nothing from your long-suffering. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:11
Salmos 10:15
Let no one be arrogant about the pinnacle of power or be puffed up; it is a precarious and risky position and topples the careless with great ease. — COMMENTARY ON THE PSALMS 10:11