Expositions on the Book of Psalms
524 THE WORKS\-OF ST) AUGUSTIN, [PsaLm CV.
ungodly, they were such as would readily envy. their prosperous sojourners. And so, in that He multiplied His own people, this bountiful act turned the wicked to envy. For envy is the hatred of another's prosperity. In this sense, therefore, He turned their heart, so that through envy they hated His people, and dealt untruly with His servants. It was not then by making their hearts evil, but by doing good to His people, that He turned their hearts, that were evil of their own accord, to hatred. For He did not pervert a righteous heart, but turned one perverted of its own accord to the hatred of His people, while He was to make a good use of that evil ;' not by making them evil, but by lavishing blessings upon those, which the wicked might most readily envy.
bore with a very stiffnecked people, until all things which God had determined to work by ae were fulfilled in order.
o. "He turned their waters into blood, and sie their fish" (ver. 29). "He made 'their land frogs, yea, even in the king's chambers"
(ver. 30) : as if he were to say, He turned their land into frogs. For there was so great a multitude of frogs, that this might well be said by hyperbole.
21. " He spake the word, and there came all manner of flies, and lice in all their quarters"
(ver. 31). If it be asked when He spake, it was in His Word before it took place ; and there it was, without time, at what time it should take place: although even then He commanded it to be done, when it was to be done, through Angels, and through his servants Moses and Aaron.
17. The following verses, which are sung in praise of Him when Allelujah is chanted, show how He used this hatred of theirs, both for the trial of His own people, and for the glory of His Name, which is profitable for us. "He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen fim" (ver. 26). "Whom He had chosen," would be sufficient; but there is no difficulty in the addition of "him." It is a phrase of Scripture, as, " The land in which they shall dwell in it:''? a phrase which the divine pages are full of.
22. "He made their rains hail" (ver. 32). It is a similar expression to the former, " He made their land frogs ;"" except that the whole land was not actually turned into frogs, though the whole of the rain may have been turned into hail. 'A burning fire in their land: " understand, " He sent."
23. " He smote their vines also and fig-trees ; and brake every tree of their coasts" (ver. 33). This was done by the violence of the hail, and by lightnings ; whence he spoke of the fire as
18. "He set forth in them the words of His tokens, and of His wonders in the land of Ham"
"' burning."
24. " He spake the word, and the locust came, and the caterpillar, of which there was no number" (ver. 34). The locusts and the caterpillars are one plague: of which the one is the parent, the other the offspring.
(ver. 27). We ought not to understand by "the words of His tokens," words literally, words with which the tokens and wonders were worked, that is, which they uttered, that these tokens and wonders might take place. For many were performed without words, either with a rod, or with outstretched hand, or by ashes sent towards heaven sists
25. "And did eat up all the grass in their land, and devoured the fruit of the ground" (ver. 35). Even grass is fruit, as Scripture is wont to speak, which calleth even the ripe corn grass ; but it wished these two things to harmonize in number with the two which it had spoken of before, that is, the locust and the caterpillar. But the whole of this doth belong to the variety of speech, which is a remedy for weariness, not to any difference of senses.
1g. "He sent darkness, and made it dark" (ver. 28). This is also written among the plagues with which the Egyptians were smitten.
But what followeth, is variously read in different copies. For some have, "and they provoked His words ;"" while others read, "and they provoked not His words;" but the reading first mentioned we have found in most ; while, where the negative particle is added, we could hardly discover two copies. But perhaps the false reading has abounded owing to the easy sense ; for what is easier understood than this, " They provoked His words," that is, by their contumacious rebellions? We have endeavoured to explain the other reading also according to some true sense: and this for the present occurs: "They provoked not His words," that is, in Moses and Aaron; because they most patiently
26. " He smote every first-born in their land: even the first-fruits of all their strength "' (ver. 36). This is the last plague, excepting the death in the Red Sea. "The first-fruits of all their strength," I imagine to be an expression derived from the first-born of cattle. These plagues are ten in number, but they are not all mentioned, nor in the same order in which they are there read to have happened. For praisegiving is free from the law which bindeth one who is relating or composing a history. And since the Holy Spirit is the Author and Dictator, through the Prophet, of this praise ; by the very same authority with which He guided him who wrote that history, he doth both mention some-
I[A felicitous exposition of the sense in which " good is brought out of evil." Compare A. N. F, vol. viii. pp. 140 and 223.— C.] 2 Numb. xiii, 20; Lev. xviii. 3.