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Psalm 109:16-18
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 109:16-18
New Catholic Bible
16 [a]“For he never thought of showing mercy;
rather, he hounded to death
the poor and the needy and the brokenhearted.
17 He loved to level curses[b] at others;
may they recoil on him.
He took no pleasure in blessing;
may no blessing be his.
18 [c]“He clothed himself with cursing as his garment;
it seeped into his body like water
and into his bones like oil.
Footnotes
- Psalm 109:16 No other place expresses with such vivid intensity the terrible logic of judgment whereby what humans choose, they ultimately receive to the full.
- Psalm 109:17 Curses: see note on Ps 10:7.
- Psalm 109:18 These words, leveled at the psalmist by his enemies, claim that cursing was his clothing as well as his food and drink; he lived, so to speak, by cursing (see Prov 4:17). Cursing was intended to destroy a person, his position, his family, and the remembrance of his name.
