The days of his youth have you shortened: you have covered him with shame. Selah.
Read Chapter 89
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
"All they that go by the way have spoiled him:" that is, all the heathen that go by the way, meaning, all who pass through this life, have spoiled Israel, have spoiled David. First of all, see his fragments in all nations: for it is of the Jews that it is said, "They shall be a portion for foxes." For the Scripture calls wicked, crafty, and cowardly kings, whom another's virtue terrifies, foxes. Thus when our Lord Himself was speaking of the threatening Herod, He said, "Go ye, and tell that fox." The king who fears no man, is not a fox: like that Lion of Judah, of whom it is said, "Stooping down Thou didst rise up, and didst sleep as a lion." At Thy will Thou didst stoop down, at Thy will didst rise; because Thou wouldest, Thou didst sleep. And thus in another Psalm he says, "16 slept." Was not the sentence complete, "I slept, and took rest, and rose up again, because the Lord shall uphold Me"? Why is the word ego added? and thus with a strong emphasis on the word I, they raged against...
Time. Hebrew, "youth. "(St. Jerome) (Haydock)
Joachim was only seventeen years old when he came to the throne, which he occupied three months. (Amama)
The four last kings of Juda reigned but a short while, and most of them came to an untimely end. Instead of chronou, the Roman Septuagint, St. Augustine, read thronou, "of his throne "or reign. (Calmet)
The Vulgate seems more natural, as the throne of David had subsisted above 400 years, so that it was not overturned in "its youth "or commencement, though the number of ages, promised to it, seemed now to be abridged. (Berthier)
