119. Ain.
"I have dealt judgment and righteousness; O give me not over unto mine oppressors" 1 (ver. 121). It is not wonderful that he should have dealt judgment and righteousness, since he had above prayed for a chaste fear from God, whereby to fix with nails his flesh, that is, his carnal lusts, which are wont to hinder our judgment from being right. But although in our customary speech judgment is either right or wrong, whence it is said unto men in the Gospel, "Judge not according to the persons, but judge righteous judgment:" 2 nevertheless in this passage judgment is used as though, if it were not righteous, it ought not to be called judgment; otherwise it would not be enough to say, "I have dealt judgment," but it would be said, I have dealt righteous judgment....
[The author says: "For some copies read, to them that persecute me: the Greek words tois ?ntidikousi being variously interpreted by the Latin nocentibus, persequentibus, and calumniantibus. I wonder, however, that I have never met with the version adversantibus in any of the copies which I have read, since there is no doubt that the Greek ?ntidikos is the same as the Latin adversarius. While he prays therefore that he may not be given up to his adversaries by the Lord, what doth he pray, save what we pray, when we say, Lead us not into temptation'?"--C.] ↩
John vii. 24. ↩
