That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Read Chapter 38
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
And didst. Some explain Hebrew, "that it (Aurora) might spread at once to the extremities of the earth. Then the wicked flee before it "as they hate the light, chap. xxxiv. 26., and John iii. 20. (Calmet)
Septuagint and Protestants may be understood in this sense. (Haydock)
Allusion may also be made to the shaking of a sieve, to separate the wheat from the chaff; (Amos ix. 9., and Luke xxii. 31.; Calmet) or of a carpet, to clean it from the dust. (Du Hamel)
Did God ask thee to help him to exterminate the wicked? The short digression in these three verses, shows the punishment exercised on offenders. It is not contrary to the true spirit of poetry. (Menochius)
20. For by ‘earth’ is designated man, who savours of things below; to whom it was said in his sin; Earth thou art, and to earth shall thou go. [Gen. 3, 19] But because the merciful Creator forsakes not His own work, He both bears with the sins of men, by His wisdom, and at last remits them by their conversion. But, when He beholds hard and insensible minds, He scares them at one time with threats, at another with blows, at another with revelations: in order that those which had become hardened by most fatal security may be softened by wholesome fear, so that they may, though at last, return, and blush at least at this, that they have long been waited for. For thus the Lord, because He judges more severely the ends of our life, therefore purges also His Elect more carefully at the close. For it is written; God shall judge the ends of the earth. [1 Sam. 2, 10] He therefore watches more anxiously over our closing deeds, the more He considers that the beginnings of our coming life depend u...
5. The Lord ‘held the ends of the earth,’ because He came in the end of the world to the synagogue which was now forsaken and subject to foreign kings: and He shook the wicked out of it, because He cast out even from the glory of the carnal sacrifice, those who denied the spiritual preaching of the faith. Or He certainly held the ends of the earth, because He chose out of Judaea a few abject and humble men. He held the ends of the earth, because He forsook the doctors of the law, and chose fishermen. And while He holds the ends of the earth, He shakes the wicked out of it, because while He strengthens weak believers, He condemns the sturdy unbelievers therein. But the word ‘shaking,’ He also rightly added: because by His coming He stirred up even the hearts of the reprobates with immeasurable fear. For they in truth were shaken who were saying, We prevail nothing, behold, the whole world is gone after Him. [John 12, 19] But a thing which is shaken is wearied out by being drawn hither a...
