172.
At last he openeth himself completely, and showeth what person was speaking throughout the whole Psalm. "I have gone astray," he saith, "like a sheep that is lost: O seek 1 Thy servant, for I do not forget Thy commandments" (ver. 176). Let the lost sheep be sought, let the lost sheep be quickened, for whose sake its Shepherd left the ninety and nine in the wilderness, 2 and while seeking it, was torn by Jewish thorns. But it is still being sought, let it still be sought, partly found let it still be sought. For as to that company, among whom the Psalmist saith, "I do not forget Thy commandments," it hath been found; but through those who choose the commandments of God, gather them together, love them, it is still sought, and by means of the blood of its Shepherd shed and sprinkled abroad, it is found in all nations. 3
[He says: "Some copies have not "seek," but "quicken." For there is a difference only of one syllable between the corresponding Greek words zeson and zeteson: whence the Greek copies themselves derive the variation."--C.] ↩
Matt. xviii. 12, 13. ↩
[He adds: "As far as I have been able, as far as I have been aided by the Lord, I have treated throughout, and expounded, this great Psalm,--a task which more able and learned expositors have performed or will perform better; nevertheless, my services were not to be withheld from it on that account, when my brethren earnestly required it of me, to whom I owed this office. That I have said nothing of the Hebrew alphabet, in which every eight verses are ranged under a particular letter, and the whole Psalm arranged in this manner, let no one wonder, since I found nothing that related especially to the Psalm: for it is not the only one which hath these letters. Let those who cannot find it in the Latin and Greek versions, since it is not adopted there, know that every set of eight verses in the Hebrew copies beginneth with that letter which is prefixed to them; as is indicated to us by those who are acquainted with the Hebrew tongue. This is done with much more care than our writers have shown in their Latin or Punic compositions of Psalms which they style abecedarii. For they do not begin all the verses down to the close of a period, but the first only with the same letter which they prefix to it." It was the counsel of the learned general editor to drop this Psalm entirely. For the sake of preserving the symmetry of the work, I have retained as much as I could.--C.] ↩
