| Psalms 13:3
| They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good: no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they acted deceitfully: the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways; and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.
| Unprofitable. Without faith in Christ, none have meritorious works. (Worthington) --- Not one. Such was the condition of the world before Christ, as all were born in sin. "No one," says St. Augustine, "can do good, except he shew the method." All were immersed in ruin, "except the holy Virgin, concerning whom, for the honour of the Lord, I would have no question at all, in treating of sins." (St. Augustine, de Nat. et Grat. contra Pelag. 37:44.) (Calmet) --- The Council of Trent approves of this reserve, when speaking of original sin. Our Saviour is the source of this privilege, and much more out of the question. He could not be guilty of any sort of transgression. He was in all things like to us, excepting sin. (Haydock) --- Their, etc. What follows to shall not, (ver. 4.) occurs in St. Paul; (Romans 3:11, 12, 13.) whence St. Jerome supposes that it has been inserted here, though the apostle took the quotations from different parts of scripture. (Praef. in xvi. Isaias.) He informs us, that all the Greek commentators marked it as not found in Hebrew or the Septuagint, "except in the Vulgate or koine, which varied in different parts of the world." There seems to be no reason why it should have been omitted designedly, whereas some might insert it, through the false notion that St. Paul had taken it from this psalm. (Calmet) --- The Hebrew is not therefore mutilated, but the Vulgate redundant. (Amama) --- Yet this is not absolutely clear. We find the quotation in the Roman Septuagint which is the most correct; (Berthier) though some prefer the Alexandrian manuscripts. (Haydock) --- It is also in the Arabic and Ethiopic versions; so that it might have been in St. Paul's copy. Our Saviour read a passage from Isaias, which is not extant, Luke 4:19. (Berthier) --- St. Justin Martyr, St. Augustine, etc., agree with the Vulgate; and Lindan mentions a Hebrew copy which had these verses, though the learned have reason to think that this Hebrew was of a modern date. (Calmet) --- Protestants, 1577, inserted these three verses, (Worthington) which they now omit. --- Sepulchre. They are never satisfied with destruction, (Haydock) and with vexing others. (Worthington) --- We bear in ourselves the seed of corruption, which can be prevented from growing up only by the grace of Jesus Christ. (Berthier) --- Perdition is from thyself, O Israel. (Haydock)
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