Therefore shall you make them turn their back, when you shall make ready your arrows upon your strings toward their face.
All Commentaries on Psalms 21:12 Go To Psalms 21
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
In thy remnants thou shalt prepare their face: or thou shalt set thy remnants against their faces. That is, thou shalt make them see what punishment remain for them hereafter from thy justice. Instead of remnants, St. Jerome renders it funes, that is cords or strings: viz., of the bow of divine justice, from which God directs his arrows against the faces of his enemies. (Challoner) "Thou wilt strengthen thy cords against their faces "(St. Jerome) or "thou wilt prepare thy arrows on thy bow-strings "But as bemetharic (Haydock) may also have the sense of the Vulgate, in thy remnants, we need not abandon this version; as it implies that after God shall have put his enemies to flight, he will turn their faces to receive "the last "of his arrows or blows; (Berthier) or He will meet them everywhere. (Haydock)
There seems to be some transposition in Hebrew and the Vulgate, as if we should read in reliquis eorum præparabis vultum tuum. "Thou wilt execute thy vengeance upon their children "(Calmet) or, as this transposition is unnecessary, "thou shalt make them look at thy children "(Haydock) the elect, to increase their rage. (Bellarmine; Jansenius)
To behold the glory of the just, which might so easily have been their own, will greatly mortify the reprobate at the last day. (Haydock)
