“For thine incorruptible Spirit is in all things.”
O how. Septuagint, “for incorruptible is thy Spirit;” which St. Athanasius (ad Serap.) adduces as a proof of the Holy Ghost’s divinity. (Calmet) — God loves the soul of man. (Grotius)
“And also those merciless murderers of children, and devourers of man's flesh, and the feasts of blood,”
Consecration. Literally, sacrament, or land. That is, the land sacred to thee, in which thy temple was to be established, and man’s redemption to be wrought. (Challoner)
“Nevertheless even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps, forerunners of thine host, to destroy them by little and little.”
Wasps. These were the auxiliaries of the Hebrews, Deuteronomy vii. 20. St. James saved Nisibis from the Persian army, by praying for gnats to descend. (Theod.[Theodoret?] Philot. i.) — The inhabitants of Belgrade incensed bees, by fire and smoke, to attack the troops of Amurath. (Bonf. iv. dec. 3.)
“But executing thy judgments upon them by little and little, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a naughty generation, and that their malice was bred in them, and that their cogitation would never be changed.”
Natural. We are all by nature children of wrath, Ephesians ii. 3. (Haydock) — But the Chanaanites were accursed by Noe[Noah], (Genesis ix. 25.) and were brought up in wickedness (Psalm lvii. 4.) by their parents. (St. Augustine, de Bapt. ii. 8.) — Changed. Because they would not employ well the time allowed them. (Calmet) — By custom, malice became as it were natural, after nature was corrupted. (Worthington)
“For it was a cursed seed from the beginning; neither didst thou for fear of any man give them pardon for those things wherein they sinned.”
Pardon. Or impunity. (Calmet) — “Thou art angry, and yet are tranquil.[“] (St. Augustine, Confessions i. 4.)
“For who shall say, What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall accuse thee for the nations that perish, whom thou made? or who shall come to stand against thee, to be revenged for the unrighteous men?”
Done? Shall the clay say to the potter, why hast thou made me thus? (Isaias xlv. 9., and lxiv. 8.) We know, that under a just God, no one is miserable, unless he deserve it, ver. 15.
“Forsomuch then as thou art righteous thyself, thou orderest all things righteously: thinking it not agreeable with thy power to condemn him that hath not deserved to be punished.”
Punished. (St. Augustine, ep. 106.) Some have read incorrectly: “Thou condemnest him who ought not to be punished, and deemest him a stranger to thy virtue,” which St. Gregory (Mor. iii. 11.) explains of Jesus Christ, the victim of sinners; others, of people born in sin, (Lyranus) while some would hence prove the decree of reprobation. (Duran.) — But it is needless to explain a text which the Greek shews to be inaccurate. (Calmet)
“But by such works hast thou taught thy people that the just man should be merciful, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope that thou givest repentance for sins.”
Hope. Under a God of such clemency, none should despair.
“For, look, for what things they grudged, when they were punished, that is, for them whom they thought to be gods; now being punished in them, when they saw it, they acknowledged him to be the true God, whom before they denied to know: and therefore came extreme damnation upon them.”
God. Who destroyed their idols: yet they did not serve him, (Worthington) which was true of all the pagans, Romans i. 21. (Calmet)