Verses 9-10. And David saith: Let their table be for a snare, and for a snare, and for a stumbling-block, and for a recompense: let their eyes be darkened, lest they see, and bring out their backs (cf. Psalm 68:23-24).

This passage is taken from the 68th Psalm, which is a prophesied psalm, which prophesied about the sufferings of Christ the Savior and about the punishment of the Jews. From this psalm in the Gospels are quoted: zeal for Thy house devour me (verse 10); and: "I have given gall for my food, and for my thirst I have given Ozta to drink" (verse 22). This verse concludes the depiction of the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ, followed by the verses quoted by St. Paul (verses 23-24), with which the Prophet David begins the depiction of the disastrous consequences of the unjust condemnation of Christ the Lord to death. Undoubtedly, because in these verses there is a prophecy, which, having understood in his spirit, the holy Apostle cites in confirmation of his position. The punishment of the Jews for betraying the Lord to death is expressed in the Prophet as desirable: let it be... let them be darkened. Thus these words are quoted by the Apostle. And the meaning of this is this: and there shall be a table before them in a net, and their eyes shall be darkened, and their backs shall be bent.

St. Athanasius the Great, interpreting this psalm, says in response to the words: "Let their table be before them in a snare" (Psalm 68:23) — the following: "By this the Prophet depicts that he will come upon the Jews after the suffering of the Lord." The word "meal" – St. Chrysostom and Blessed Theodorite give an allegorical meaning, meaning by it pleasure or pleasure. How they thirsted and hungered for the death of the Lord, crying out: "Crucify, crucify Him" (Luke 23:21), and they did not heed any of Pilate's admonitions! At last they satisfied their thirst for blood, and they were satisfied. And this very thing attracted the most extreme calamities upon them. They thirsted for blood, they paid with blood. St. Athanasius the Great writes: "With these words, as it were, the Prophet speaks in the presence of the Lord: they will endure the very thing that they have prepared for Me, desiring that I should experience it. Woe to the evil one, for the evil one shall come to him according to the work of his hands (cf. Isaiah 3:11)."

The other words: catching, temptation – the same means: they were offended, – they thought to get rid of the misfortune by handing over the Deliverer to death, and they fell into the trap, to all kinds of misfortunes. And the word "and for their recompense" was added by the Prophet, so that it might be seen that the Jews would suffer all these things as a punishment.

Let their eyes be darkened if they do not see, that is, their eyes will be darkened. They did not see the Lord in the Son of Man walking on the earth, although the Lord made Himself clearly visible in Him. But it was still a semi-darkening. Complete darkness came to them after the death and resurrection of the Lord. Here it is obvious that their blindness was God's punishment upon them. How could one not see the Lord in the signs accompanying His death, when the pagan saw Him, in His resurrection before Him, in the descent of the Holy Spirit, in the testimonies of the Apostles, confirmed by the powers and miracles of the name of the Lord? One could feel the Lord in all this and exclaim, like the Apostle Thomas: My Lord and my God! (cf. John 20:28). And they did not see, because they did not want to see. And the Lord darkened their eyes, so that they could not see.

And take out their backs, and they will forever be under the yoke of slavery. They were already subject to an alien power, but still retained a certain part of self-government. But when they delivered up the Lord to death, they soon afterwards lost everything, both the city and the sanctuary, and were scattered everywhere in the form of slaves. And to this day they are under foreign authorities; and they will always be under them, as the prophetic word shows: "Take them out," that is, always keep them bent under the yoke.

In order to confirm his thought with prophecy, St. Paul could only be quoted with the following words: "Let their eyes be darkened if they do not see," that is, their eyes darkened. And he cited both what is ahead of the Prophet and what is after. Why did he do this? Perhaps so that the speech would not be scarce and more rounded. Or rather, in order to show that this delusion, according to the prophecy, is their recompense, the punishment and punishment of God, which is spoken of in the future, and that it is only the threshold of temptation, snare and trapping, and the end of this will be the final enslavement. When the Apostle quoted these words, darkness was already active in the Jews, but there was still no comparison of the backbone: they still proudly held their heads and cherished vain hopes of their exaltation. Citing a prophetic prophecy about this, he led them to think of what awaited them soon, and thus hoped to dispose those who had not yet accepted it to accept the gospel and to confirm those who had accepted it in faith.

St. Chrysostom, who wrote his Discourses after the fulfillment of this punishment predicted by St. David, dwells on it both as proof of the correctness of the prophecies, and as a testimony to the perniciousness of unbelief.

"Is there any need here," he says, "any interpretation? Is this not clear even to the most unreasonable? Even before our words, actual experience testified to what the Prophet said. When has it ever happened that the Jews were so easily captivated and overcome? When were they subjected to such slavery? The most important thing is that there will be no end to these disasters, as the Prophet remarked. For he did not simply say, "Lay down their back," but added, "I will take it out." But if you, Jew, assert that the calamities will end, then judge the present by the past. You were carried away to Egypt, but two hundred years passed, and in spite of all your wickedness, God immediately freed you from this bondage. After your deliverance from Egypt, you worshipped the calf, you sacrificed your sons to Baal-Peor (Num. 25:3), you defiled the temple, you plunged into all kinds of iniquity, you filled the mountains, the wilds, the hills, the springs, the rivers, the gardens with abominable sacrifices, you killed the prophets, you overthrew the altars, you fully succeeded in wickedness and wickedness; but God, having delivered you over to the Babylonians for seventy years, brought you back to your former freedom, and restored to you the temple, and the fatherland, and the former form of prophecy. Even during the captivity itself you were not forsaken; but Daniel and Ezekiel were with thee also. After this, you again turned to your former vices, gave yourself over to debauchery, and under the impious Antiochus accepted the Hellenic rules of life. But even then, after three years or a little more as a subject of Antiochus, through the Maccabees you erected for yourselves new famous monuments of victory. But now you don't have anything like that, on the contrary, everything went differently. And what is especially surprising, the former vices are not visible, and the punishment is increasing, and there is no hope for a change in your situation. Not seventy, not a hundred, not two hundred years, but three hundred (and now 1800) and much more; yet even the shadow of such hope is imperceptible. And all this has befallen you then, "Do not serve idols, do not do anything that you dared to do before." What is the reason for this? That the image is replaced by truth, and the law is excluded by grace. Foretelling this of old, the Prophet said: "I will take out their backs." Do you notice the accuracy of the prophecy, how it predicts unbelief, how it reveals stubbornness, how the judgment that follows is announced, and how the endless punishment is indicated?"

Having explained that the rejection of the Jews and the reception of the Gentiles into the Kingdom of Christ is in accordance with the given promises, and having pointed out the reason for this in the faith of some and the unbelief of others, St. Paul now introduces this event into the plans of Divine providence for the human race, in order thus to finally calm the minds and put an end to all perplexities on this subject. But in doing this, he at the same time gives a strong admonition to the Gentile believers not to neglect the mercy shown to them, and consoles those who are tormented by pity for the Jews by predicting that blindness has come upon Israel only for a time, after which he will all be converted and saved. "Thus does the Apostle in order that the Jews, having plunged them into despair, should not be barred from the way to faith, and those who believe from among the Gentiles should not be given cause for arrogance, and they, being proud, would not suffer loss in the faith. We should not just listen to what is being said, but delve into the speaker's thought and intention. If we accept every word with such reflection, then we will not encounter difficulties in any of them. And in the present case, the purpose of the Apostle is to destroy the arrogance of those who believe from among the Gentiles (and to convince the Jews that they have not completely fallen); for just as the Gentiles, having learned modesty, will remain safer in the faith, so the Jews, being led out of despair, will more willingly approach grace. Thus, paying attention to this purpose of the Apostle, let us listen to all that he said in the present place" (St. Chrysostom).

Verse 11. For I say, the food of those who have sinned, let them fall away? Let it not be: but those are saved by the fall of the tongue, in which they are provoked.

You think that it all happened so-so, without much reason. No. The consequence of Israel's falling into unbelief is that the Gentiles are brought into the fold of salvation, and this introduction is well deigned in order to draw Israel into the same place after that, arousing in them jealousy or emulation, and thus the whole human race is saved. This is the providential significance of what is now happening before our eyes among the Gentiles and Jews!

The food of those who have sinned, let them fall away? — Μη επτοασαν ϊνα πεσωσιν? It can be translated in two ways: did they stumble, of course, against the Stone, Christ the Lord, through unbelief, and thereby sinned in order to fall completely, being bruised to death? Or: Did they stumble only to fall and nothing else? The last thought is seen here by Blessed Photius in Ecumenia. It is closer to the immediately following words, and the first to further speech. It is therefore appropriate to accept both. Blessed Theophylact writes: "Have they sinned in such a way that it is no longer possible to heal them? Nohow. They have sinned, that is, they have stumbled, but their fall is not such that there is no means of correcting the matter." So it is with St. Chrysostom, Ambrose, Ecumenius. The latter writes: "The sin of the Jews is very great; but did they stumble in such a way that, having fallen, they could not rise, even if they wanted to? No. No matter how much they stumble, they can be accepted by God again into mercy, if they will." Then he quotes the words of Blessed Photius. "As among those who stumble some only stumble like those who slipped, and others fall completely, the Apostle, wishing, on the one hand, to arouse pain for himself in the Jews, as worthily subjected to reproach, and on the other hand, to dispose them to faith, says that their stumbling did not occur in their complete fall, but that they seemed to have only slipped. And this is not simply (it did not happen in some way), but was allowed by some providential dispensation, so that on the occasion of their fall the salvation of the Gentiles would be accomplished, and then their own restoration, when by the salvation of the Gentiles they would become irritated to emulation and would imitate them. in this salvation is the irritation of the zeal of the Jews, and through this jealousy is the restoration of those who have stumbled. Such is the ineffable and incomprehensible providence and dispensation of God, which extracts from the harmful the useful and from the destructive the beneficial! The Jews stumbled and fell, and they would have to lie down, neither for themselves nor for others, without any benefit. But God used this fall of theirs as a means both for the salvation of the pagans and for the restoration of them from this fall. So that, according to God's order, they stumbled not in order to fall, but in order to arise and correct themselves through stumbling."

That in the stumbling block of the Jews the salvation of the Gentiles was according to the Divine dispensation, the Apostle understood this from the events themselves. Both he and the other Apostles everywhere proclaimed the word of the gospel first to the Jews, and then, seeing that when one or another of the Jews received the gospel, and the others persisted, the pagans listened with joy to the word of the gospel, they saw in this very thing the indication of the finger of God and became convinced that the reception of the Gentiles, instead of the stubborn Jews, is the direct will of God. St. Chrysostom mainly develops this thought.