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Chapter 272PrecesPriv.1.272

Preces Quotidianae

God's Mercy in the Law and Prophets

The prayer appeals to God's mercy as revealed in the Law (through Moses) and the Prophets (Isaiah and Habakkuk), who declare that mercy is God's own work.

who keeps mercy for thousands, who takes away iniquity and wickedness. Num.1 xiv. 7. And by this very voice of Yours, he adjured2 Afterward Moses adjured You to forgive the people.3 8. Indeed, because of this quality of Yours, Isaiah and Habakkuk dare to call showing mercy Your own work—as if punishing and chastising were a work foreign to You.4 and abhorrent to Your nature.✦

Mercy in Job: The Angel Interceding

The prayer moves from the Law and Prophets to the testimony of Job, where nature itself, guided by the Spirit, points to an angelic intercessor who pleads for mercy on behalf of the sufferer.

9. Nor was it only the Law and the Prophets: nature itself, under the guidance of Your Spirit, persuaded Job of this.✦ Job. 32.✦ 23.✦ If there should be an angel with him—one in a thousand—to tell the man about Your righteousness, He will have mercy on him and say, 'Free him,'5 so that he does not go down into corruption. For I have found one by whom I may be gracious to him.✦67 Then he will plead with God, and God will be gracious.8

The Sweetness of the Lord in the Psalms

The prayer concludes with a series of psalm citations—Psalm 34:6, Psalm 109:20, and Psalm 62:4—that celebrate the sweetness of the Lord and the blessedness of hoping in Him.

Psalm 34. 6.9 Taste and see how sweet the Lord is: Blessed is the person who hopes in Him.10 His mercy. Psalm11 109.12 20. Sweet, 19.13 17. Sweet,14 62.15 4.✦ — Better is life.✦16

Read the original Latin

qui custodit misericordiam in millia, qui aufert iniquitatem et scelera. Num. xiv. 7. Perque hanc ipsam vocem Tuam adjuravit

Te postea Moses, ut ignosceres populo.

8. Audent vero Esaias et Abacuc, propter hoc Tuum, misereri opus Tuum appellare: Ac si punire et plectere opus alienum foret,

et abhorrens ab indole Tua.

9. Neque vero lex et prophete tantum, natura ipsa hoc persuasit Jobo, ductu Spiritus Tui.

Job. xxxii. 23. 51 fuerit cum eo Angelus loquens, unus de millibus, ut annuntiet homini Justitiam "Tuam, Miserebitur ejus, et dicet, Libera eum,

ne descendat im corruptionem ; Inveni enim, in quo ei propitier. Tum deprecabitur Deum, et placabilis erit. Psal. xxxiv. 6. Gustate et videte quam suavis est Dominus:

1 Pei Beatus vir qui sperat in Eo.

MISERICORDIA EJUS.

Psal. cix. 20. Suavis, xix. 17. Dulcis,

]xin. 4. — Melior vita.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Hab.3.2 — LORD, I have heard your report; I stand in awe, LORD. Your work—revive it in the midst of the years; in the midst of the years make it known. In wrath remember mercy.
  2. ↩Job.33.23 — If there is an angel for him, an interpreter, one out of a thousand, to declare to a man what is right for him,
  3. ↩Job.33.23-Job.33.24 — If there is an angel for him, an interpreter, one out of a thousand, to declare to a man what is right for him, Job.33.24 — And He is gracious to him, and He said, 'Redeem him from going down to the Pit; I have found a ransom.'
  4. ↩Job.33.23 — If there is an angel for him, an interpreter, one out of a thousand, to declare to a man what is right for him,
  5. ↩Job.33.23 — If there is an angel for him, an interpreter, one out of a thousand, to declare to a man what is right for him,
  6. ↩Ps.62.4 — How long will you all attack one man, battering him like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?
  7. ↩Ps.62.4 — How long will you all attack one man, battering him like a leaning wall, like a tottering fence?

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Abbreviated book citation (Numeri / Numbers), retained as a printed reference token.
  2. 2 ↩adjuravit: solemn adjuration/entreaty by God's own word; object and subject continue in the next section (Te ... Moses).
  3. 3 ↩The finite verb is supplied by continuity with the previous sentence (adjuravit); this section is an object–purpose continuation (Te … ut …), not a free-standing clause.
  4. 4 ↩propter hoc Tuum is dense: rendered as ‘because of this quality of Yours’ (God’s merciful character), not as a mere deictic ‘for this reason.’
  5. 5 ↩Leading '51' is almost certainly a misreading of 'Si' (If); translated as the conditional Si fuerit. Stray quotation mark before Tuam treated as typesetting noise.
  6. 6 ↩Source reads 'im corruptionem'; translated as the intended 'in corruptionem' (Job 33:24).
  7. 7 ↩'in quo ei propitier' is the Vulgate angelic formula: literally 'wherein / in whom I may be propitious to him'—rendered as the means of gracious favor toward the sinner.
  8. 8 ↩'placabilis erit' has no explicit subject in the Latin; sense requires God as the one who becomes gracious/appeasable (cf. Job 33:26).
  9. 9 ↩Source cites Psal. xxxiv. 6 for the following 'Gustate et videte' line, which in the Vulgate is usually Psalm 33:9 (Hebrew 34:8). Verse number may reflect a different psalter system or a source-text slip; left as printed.
  10. 10 ↩Leading '1 Pei' looks corrupt or non-Latin (possibly a verse mark, printer's mark, or OCR noise). Translation renders the clear clause Beatus vir qui sperat in Eo as the continuation of the preceding psalm line Gustate et videte quam suavis est Dominus.
  11. 11 ↩Latin abbreviation Psal. expanded as Psalm (psalm citation heading).
  12. 12 ↩Roman numeral cix rendered as 109; psalm-numbering system (Vulgate vs. Hebrew) is not specified in the source.
  13. 13 ↩Suavis is rendered as the plain adjective Sweet; it may be a catchword/incipit rather than freestanding prose, and xix is taken as Roman 19.
  14. 14 ↩Dulcis is rendered Sweet; trailing comma suggests an incomplete catchword/incipit continued in the following section.
  15. 15 ↩Source reading `]xin.` is corrupt OCR. Most plausible restoration is Vulgate psalm number `lxii.` (62), matching the following verse number and the catchword *Melior vita* (cf. Ps 62:4 Vg).
  16. 16 ↩Latin is the bare catchword *Melior vita*, not the full psalm clause *melior est misericordia tua super vitas* ("your mercy is better than life"). Rendering keeps the printed lemma rather than expanding it into the full verse.

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