David's Repentance and the Pattern of the Saints
I was silent. The silence of God is called the longsuffering toward sinners; for if He were to punish them immediately by those things, He would not be silent, deciding against them, whereas they ought to suffer. This is the mindset held by the 'I have been silent from eternity, and I will not always be silent and endure,' says the Lord (Ps 102:2). He does not say this to the one being reproved: 'These sins have been foretold to you, and I was silent, giving a space from afar through silence and longsuffering for repentance.' It is necessary to be benefited by such silence; from the opposite, you received lawlessness toward the wicked, by which you imagine me to be like you; for you, having glorified me, rejoice that I do not come forth against you.
Those who, having taken up the forgetfulness of God through sluggishness, take hold of understanding, stand upon the spoken words: 'What I longsuffer toward sins, I do not rejoice in, nor do I do this as an evil man, but as an occasion for repentance through goodness and innate kindness, by setting aside punishment' (Ps 50:1). For if you will not choose to understand, the law or the lawlessness seizes, and there is no one rescuing; for God will rescue those who understand and have repented from evil. Let those who confess not care about those who have ceased and are no longer acting, confessing, saying: 'We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have been ungodly' (Ps 50:2). For it is not the one currently doing these things who confesses.
That is, the one praising and theologizing the beauty of God glorifies Him; for the sensory worship rather dishonors, bringing God in by making Him manifest and in need of movement. The way is not there in sensory worship, but there in the truth which encounters beauty, which God shows by illuminating His own salvation, the only-begotten Son the Savior, who is the salvation itself; for the salvation of God at times signifies the salvation, and at times the Savior Christ. But let this not become an occasion to rise up against David; for when God has justified, there is no one condemning. But he will be pious toward the man, having understood that the man is long-lived and has spent most of his years in powers and in kingship, introducing only this one sin, having done it, and in addition to this, having counted the people contrary to the will of God, but not even persistently...
For such a great and far-reaching king was rebuked in sin, that when he was rebuked by a private man, he not only did not feel indignation, but even made himself worse, as the rebuking prophet says: 'And the Lord showed your sin' (Ps 51:5). For to say that the Lord showed it is to say that David himself, having led himself to most intense repentance, was led to his sin. We say that what other men fall into when sinning, the saints, running the race of salvation, if ever they should stumble as men inattentive, do not fall but persist in the race, as if the instability of the race had not seemed to them likely to trip them up. And for many other ineffective things the sins of the saints were written down in this regard; for since they are called to imitate an exceeding virtue, being hesitant, they made a pretext for having a divine portion and for the saints being unendurable in sin, but not being such, they were unable to imitate the far-reaching saints. Thus Providence granted a pretext for sin to have occurred concerning them, so that just as they are teachers of virtue, so also they are teachers of repentance for those being instructed then, having done such things. Perhaps also those far-reaching saints, having reached the height of virtue, did not arrive at this by their own power but by the cooperation of God. If they were not to fall, the divine grace would have been little, so that, having slipped, they might seek the helper of their own weakness, having come to be through consciousness (Ps 50:1,2).
And this psalm was not written in vain for Pentecost. For the number has a harmony toward mercy and forgiveness, since, if the writing spirit maintained the sequence of history, it arranged the first Pentecost and the hundredth and those following. For the first Pentecost has an inscription containing the slander of Doeg the Edomite; but that history is before the kingship of David. And the third Pentecost, the slander of the Ziphites against Saul concerning David as being hidden among them, contains this; and this narrative happened before the kingship of David, but the encounter with Bathsheba happened while David was reigning. If not the sequence...
Greek
ἐσίγησα. σιγὴ θεοῦ λέγεται ἡ πρὸς τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς μακροθυμία· ο τ' α ν γὰρ παρ' αὐτὰ τιμωρῆται, οὐ σιωπᾷ ἀποφαινόμενος κατ' αὐτῶν α δεῖ αὐτοὺς παθεῖν. Τοῦτον τὸν νοῦν ε χει καὶ τὸ ̓Εσιώπησα ἀπ' αἰῶνος, μὴ καὶ ἀεὶ σιωπήσομαι καὶ ἀνέξομαι, λέγει κύριος. πρὸς τὸν ἐλεγχόμενον ου ν φησιν· Ταῦτα ἐποίησας α προλέλεκται ἁμαρτήματα, καὶ ἐσίγησα, διὰ τῆς σιωπῆς καὶ τῆς μακροθυμίας μακρόθεν τόπον διδοὺς μετανοίας· ὠφεληθῆναι δέον ἐκ τῆς τοιαύτης σιωπῆς, ἐκ τοῦ ἐναντίου ὑπέλαβες πρὸς οι ς ει χες κακοῖς ἀνομίαν, καθ' η ν νομίζεις με ο μοιόν σοι τυγχάνειν· ε δοξάς με γὰρ χαίροντα οι ς πράττεις μὴ ἐπεξέρχεσθαι κατὰ σοῦ. 530 Ps 49,22 Οἱ λήθην θεοῦ διὰ ῥαθυμίας ἀναλαβόντες, σύνεσιν λάβετε τῶν εἰρημένων ἐπιστάνοντες ο τι κα ν μακροθυμῶ ἐπὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτήμασιν οὐ χαίρω οὐδ' ὡς πονηρὸς ποιῶ τοῦτο ἀλλ' ἀγαθότητι καὶ συμφύτῳ χρηστότητι ἀφορμὴν μεταγνώσεως διὰ τοῦ ὑπερτίθεσθαι τὴν τιμωρίαν ὀρέγων. εἰ γὰρ μὴ θελήσετε συνιέναι, ἁρπάζει ὁ α νομος η ἡ ἀνομία, καὶ οὐκ ε στιν ὁ ῥυόμενος· ῥύσεται γὰρ ὁ θεὸς τοὺς συνόντας οι κακῶν εἰσιν καὶ μετανενοηκότας. ἀμέλει οἱ ἐξομολογούμενοι ἐπὶ παυσαμένοις καὶ οὐκέτ' ἐνεργουμένοις ἐξομολογοῦνται λέγοντες· ̓Ηνομήσαμεν ἠδικήσαμεν ἠσεβήσαμεν. οὐ γὰρ οι όν τ' ε τι ἐνεργοῦντα ταῦτα ἐξομολογεῖσθαι. 531 Ps 49,23 Τουτέστιν ἡ τῆς αἰνέσεως ὑμνοῦσα καὶ θεολογοῦσα δοξάζει αὐτόν· ἡ γὰρ αἰσθητὴ μᾶλλον ἀτιμάζει, ἐπιδεῆ καὶ χρῄζοντα κνίσης εἰσάγουσα τὸν θεόν. Οὐκ ἐνταῦθα ἐν τῇ αἰσθητῇ λατρείᾳ ἀλλ' ἐκεῖ τῇ ἀληθείᾳ τυγχανούσῃ αἰνέσεως ἡ ὁδός ἐστιν η ν δείκνυσιν φωτίζων ὁ θεὸς τὸ σωτήριον ἑαυτοῦ τὸν μονογενῆ υἱὸν σωτῆρα ο ντα η αὐτὴν τὴν σωτηρίαν· τὸ γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ σωτήριον ὁτὲ μὲν τὴν σωτηρίαν, ὁτὲ δὲ τὸν σωτῆρα Χριστὸν σημαίνει. 532 Ps 50,1.2 ̓Αλλ' ο ρα μὴ ἐκ τούτου ἀφορμὴ γένηται κατεπιβῆναι τοῦ ∆αυίδ· δικαιώσαντος γὰρ τοῦ θεοῦ οὐδείς ἐστιν ὁ κατακρίνων. εὐλαβὴς δὲ περὶ τὸν α νδρα γενήσει ἐπιστήσας ὡς πολυχρόνιος ω ν ὁ ἀνὴρ καὶ τὰ πλεῖστα τῶν ἐτῶν ἐν δυναστείαις καὶ βασιλείᾳ διατελέσας τοῦτο μόνον τὸ ἁμάρτημα εἰσάγεται πεποιηκὼς 100 καὶ πρὸς τοῦτο τὸ μεμετρηκέναι τὸν λαὸν παρὰ τὸ βούλημα θεοῦ ἀλλ' ω στε οὐδ' ἐπίμονον τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ε σχεν. βασιλεὺς γὰρ ω ν τοσοῦτος καὶ τηλικοῦτος ἐλεγχθεὶς ἐφ' ῳ η μαρτεν παρὰ ἀνδρὸς ἰδιώτου οὐ μόνον οὐκ ἠγανάκτησεν, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐκάκισεν ἑαυτόν, ὡς τὸν ἐλέγχοντα προφήτην εἰπεῖν· Καὶ κύριος παρήγαγεν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν σου. τὸ γὰρ φάναι Καὶ κύριος ε δειξεν ο τι καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ∆αυὶδ σφοδροτάτῃ μετανοίᾳ παραγαγὼν η ν τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. ἐροῦμεν ου ν ο τι οἱ α λλοι α νθρωποι καταπίπτουσιν ἁμαρτάνοντες, οἱ δὲ α γιοι τρέχοντες τὸν τῆς σωτηρίας δρόμον, ει ποτε ὡς α νθρωποι ἀπροσεκτήσαντες προσκόψοιεν, οὐ καταπίπτουσιν ἀλλ' ἐπιμένουσι τῷ δρόμῳ, ὡς ἀδιαστάτου μείναντος τοῦ δρόμου μὴ δεδόκειν αὐτοὺς προσκεκοφέναι· καὶ δι' α λλα δὲ πολλὰ λυσιτελῆ ἀνεγράφησαν τὰ τῶν ἁγίων ἁμαρτήματα ω ν ε ν τοῦτο· ἐπεὶ γὰρ ὑπερβάλλουσαν ἀρετὴν ει χον ἐπὶ μίμησιν τούτων καλούμενοι, ὀκνοῦντες ἐπροφασίσαντο α ν θείαν μοῖραν ει ναι καὶ ἁμαρτίας ἀνεπίδεκτον τοὺς ἁγίους, αὐτοὺς δὲ μὴ ο ντας τοιούτους, ἀδυνάτως ει χον μιμήσασθαι τοὺς τηλικούτους ἁγίους· ο θεν ἐνδέδωκεν ἡ πρόνοια πρόφασιν ἁμαρτίας περὶ αὐτοὺς γεγενῆσθαι, ι ν' ω σπερ ἀρετῆς ου τως καὶ μετανοίας διδάσκαλοι ω σιν τῶν παιδευόντων τότε ἀνυόντων, ο τ' α ν πράξαντες ω σιν. τάχα δὲ καὶ ου τοι οἱ τηλικοῦτοι εἰς α κρον ἀρετῆς φθάσαντες ε δοξαν ἰδίᾳ δυνάμει ἀλλὰ μὴ θεοῦ συνεργείᾳ ἐπὶ τοῦτ' ἐληλυθέναι· ι ν' ου ν μὴ εἰς οι ησιν πέσωσιν, παρεῖδεν ὀλίγον ἡ θεία χάρις, ι ν' ὀλισθήσαντες ζητήσωσιν τὸν ἀρωγὸν τῆς ἑαυτῶν ἀσθενείας ἐν συναισθήσει γεγενημένοι. 533 Ps 50,1.2 Πεντηκοστὸς δὲ ου τος ψαλμὸς ἀναγέγραπται οὐ ματαίως. ε χει γὰρ ἁρμονίαν πρὸς ε λεον καὶ α φεσιν ὁ ἀριθμός, ἐπεὶ, εἰ τὸ ἀκόλουθον τῆς ἱστορίας ἐτήρει τὸ συγγραφικὸν πνεῦμα, προέτασσεν τούτου τὸν πεντηκοστὸν πρῶτον καὶ πεντηκοστὸν καὶ τοὺς ἐφ' ἑξῆς. ὁ γὰρ πεντηκοστὸς πρῶτος ἐπιγραφὴν ε χει περιέχουσαν τὴν διαβολὴν ∆ωὴκ τοῦ Σύρου· αυ τη δὲ ἡ ἱστορία πρὸ βασιλείας ἐστὶν τοῦ ∆αυίδ. καὶ ἡ τοῦ πεντηκοστοῦ τρίτου τῶν Ζιφαίων διαβολὴ πρὸς τὸν Σαοὺλ περὶ τοῦ ∆αυὶδ ὡς κεκρυμμένου παρ' αὐτοῖς περιέχει· καὶ τοῦτο δὲ τὸ διήγημα πρὸ τῆς βασιλείας τοῦ ∆αυὶδ γέγονεν, ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὴν Βηθσαβεὲ σύνοδος βασιλεύοντος τοῦ ∆αυὶδ γέγονεν. ει περ ου ν τὸ ἀκόλουθον
About this text
Discover how early Christians interpreted the Psalms as divine messages and prophecies about salvation and judgment.
Original English Translation — new OET from PG Greek.
Catalogue & scope
Khazarzar scan
Witnesses
- Copy-text PG (Khazarzar) (Greek)
This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Greek on each section for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.