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Chapter 161PrecesPriv.1.161

Preces Quotidianae

Can the Dead Praise?

A series of anguished questions and scripture citations asking whether the dead can proclaim God's truth, mercy, and wonders—echoing Psalms and Isaiah's lament.

Or will it proclaim Your truth?✦ Ps. 30.1 9. For there is no one in death who remembers You; in the grave, no one who will praise You.✦2 Ps. 6.3 5. Will You work wonders for the dead? Or will the dead be raised up and confess You?4 Psalm. Will anyone in the grave tell of Your mercy, and of Your truth in the dust? Verse. 11. Will Your wonders be known in the darkness, and Your justice in the land of oblivion?5 Verse. 12. .6 For hell will not confess You, nor will death praise You.✦ Those who go down into the pit will not hope for Your truth.✦ 18. xxxvin.7 18. The living, the living—he himself will praise You.✦8 Verse. 19.✦

Vanity and Judgment

A humble plea acknowledging human vanity and the impossibility of being justified before God, citing Psalms 89, 143, 130, and Job 9.

In vain. Have You made all the children of men in vain? Psalm.9 Do not enter into judgment with Your servant, for he will not be justified in Your sight. anyone living.✦10 If You kept account of iniquities, Lord, Lord, who could stand? Psalm 130.11 3. If he wanted to contend with Him, he would not be able to.✦12 to answer Him once in a thousand.✦ Job.✦13 9.14 3.✦

Spare Your Inheritance

A final plea that God not let His inheritance be disgraced among the nations, quoting Joel 2:17.

Triumph of the enemies. Do not hand Your inheritance over to disgrace, so that the nations may rule over it.✦15 Why do they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'✦ (Joel 2:17)✦16

Read the original Latin

aut annunciabit veritatem Tuam? Psa/. xxx. 9. Quoniam non est in morte, qui memor sit Tui; in inferno, qui confitebitur Tibi. Psa/. vi. 5.

Nunquid mortuis facies mirabilia? Aut mortui suscitabuntur, et confitebuntur Tibi? Psa/.

Nunquid narrabit aliquis in sepulcro misericordiam Tuam, et veritatem in pulvere? Vers. 11. Nunquid ecognoscentur in tenebris mirabilia Tua, et justitia Tua in terra oblivionis? Vers. 12. . Quia non infernus confitebitur Tibi, neque mors laudabit Te.

Non expectabunt, qui descendunt in lacum, veritatem Tuam. 18. xxxvin. 18.

Vivens, vivens, ipse confitebitur "Tibi. Vers. 19.

Frustra.

Nunquid vane constituisti omnes filios hominum? Psaj.

Ne intres in judicium cum servo Tuo, quia non justificabitur in conspectu Tuo

omnis vivens.

Si iniquitates observaveris, Domine, Domine, quis sustinebit? Psal exxx. 3.

8&1 voluerit contendere cum eo, non poterit

ei respondere unum pro mille. o5. ix. 3.

Triumphus hostium. Ne des hzxreditatem "Tuam in opprobrium, ut dominentur ei Nationes. Quare dicunt in populis, Ubi est Deus eorum? (Joel. x, 17.]

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Ps.30.10;Ps.31.9 — What profit is there in my blood, in my going down to the Pit? Will dust praise you? Will it declare your faithfulness? Ps.31.9 — But you have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place.
  2. ↩Ps.6.6 — For there is no remembrance of you in death; in Sheol, who can give you thanks?
  3. ↩Isa.38.18 — For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
  4. ↩Isa.38.18 — For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness.
  5. ↩Isa.38.18;Isa.38.19 — For Sheol cannot thank you, death cannot praise you; those who go down to the Pit cannot hope for your faithfulness. Isa.38.19 — The living, the living one—he shall praise You, as I do this day; a father makes known to his children Your faithfulness.
  6. ↩Isa.38.19 — The living, the living one—he shall praise You, as I do this day; a father makes known to his children Your faithfulness.
  7. ↩Ps.143.2;Ps.144.2 — And do not bring your servant into judgment, for no one living is righteous before you. Ps.144.2 — my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer for me, my shield; in him I take refuge, who subdues my people under me.
  8. ↩Job.9.3;Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand. Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand.
  9. ↩Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand.
  10. ↩Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand.
  11. ↩Job.9.3 — If someone wished to contend with God, he could not answer Him once in a thousand.
  12. ↩Joel.2.17 — Between the porch and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. And let them say, 'Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"'
  13. ↩Joel.2.17;Ps.79.10 — Between the porch and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. And let them say, 'Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"' Ps.79.10 — Why should the nations say, \"Where is their God?\" Let the vengeance for the shed blood of your servants be known among the nations before our eyes.
  14. ↩Joel.2.17 — Between the porch and the altar, let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep. And let them say, 'Spare your people, O LORD, and do not make your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, "Where is their God?"'

Notes

  1. 1 ↩xxx. treated as Roman numeral 30 (Psalm chapter number in the citation string Psa/. xxx. 9.).
  2. 2 ↩inferno rendered as 'the grave' (Sheol/underworld sense of the psalm), not later doctrinal hell; confitebitur as 'praise' (psalmic confiteri), not confession of sin.
  3. 3 ↩vi. treated as Roman numeral 6 (Psalm chapter number in the citation string Psa/. vi. 5.).
  4. 4 ↩confitebuntur can mean confess or praise; psalm register favors confess/praise of God. Source reads mortui (the dead) rather than the common Vulgate medici (physicians).
  5. 5 ↩Source reads ecognoscentur; translated as cognoscentur (will be known), the standard psalm form and the only plausible intended sense.
  6. 6 ↩Source is a bare period with no verbal content; preserved as punctuation only.
  7. 7 ↩Surface 'xxxvin.' is opaque/likely corrupt (possibly a garbled Roman numeral or biblical chapter cue such as xxxviii / 38). Left as printed rather than silently emended.
  8. 8 ↩Source has an orphaned opening quote before Tibi (`confitebitur "Tibi.`); treated as confitebitur Tibi without inventing a missing close or further text.
  9. 9 ↩Source reads 'Psaj.'—treated as a corrupt or abbreviated citation tag for Psal./Psalm after the quoted verse, not as independent prose.
  10. 10 ↩Printed fragment completing the preceding citation: non justificabitur… omnis vivens = ‘no one living will be justified.’ Alone, omnis vivens is ‘anyone living’ / ‘every living person’; the negating force sits in the prior section.
  11. 11 ↩Expanded abbreviated citation 'Psal exxx.' as Psalm 130 (Hebrew numbering; Vulgate Ps 129).
  12. 12 ↩Leading '8&1' looks like a garbled citation or OCR artifact, not Latin prose; the readable Latin is treated as the Job 9:3 fragment voluerit contendere cum eo, non poterit (continued in the next section with ei respondere unum pro mille). Si is missing from this section's witness and may have been lost with the citation garble.
  13. 13 ↩Source 'o5.' is almost certainly OCR corruption of the book label 'Job.' (paired with following 'ix.' and '3.' as Job 9:3).
  14. 14 ↩Roman numeral chapter 'ix.' rendered as Arabic '9' for modern readability of the Job citation.
  15. 15 ↩Source hzreditatem (OCR garble) read as haereditatem/hereditatem, 'inheritance'; stray quotation mark before Tuam treated as noise.
  16. 16 ↩Source chapter numeral 'x' treated as corrupt for Joel 2 (ii/2); quoted wording matches Joel 2:17.

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