O LORD, why have you made us to err from your ways, and hardened our heart from your fear? Return for your servants' sake, the tribes of your inheritance.
Read Chapter 63
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
Hardened The meaning is, that God, in punishment of their great and manifold crimes, and their long abuse of his mercy and grace, had withdrawn his graces from them, and so given them up to error and hardness of heart. (Challoner)
They had abused his patience, to sin the more. (Theodoret)
The Jews are accustomed to attribute all to God, though they agree with us in reality God might prevent any sin. (Calmet)
But he chooses to leave man to the free exercise of his liberty. He hardens (Haydock) "not by infusing malice, but by not shewing mercy; and those to whom he shows it not, are undeserving. "(St. Augustine, ep. ad Sixt. cxciv. 14.)
God is never the author of error. Man takes occasion from his indulgence to become obdurate. (St. Jerome) (Worthington)
God does not bestow on some the help for avoiding sin which He bestows on others. This help is not merely the infusion of grace, but also an exterior guardianship, whereby the occasions of sin are providentially removed from a man’s path. God also aids man against sin by the natural light of reason, and other natural goods that He bestows on man. When then He withdraws these aids from some, as their conduct deserves that he should, according to the exigency of His justice, He is said to harden them, or to blind them. (St. Thomas Aquinas On God and His Creaure 3.163.4)
