Psalm 43(44):20
While praying the Office of Readings the other day, I noticed the following phrase:
sed humiliasti nos in loco vulpium *
et operuisti nos umbra mortis (Psalm 43(44):20, Further revised New Vulgate)
My translation:
But you have set us low in a place of foxes *
and covered us with the shadow of death
When I read that, I remembered that foxes were considered as symbols of death and desolation because they scavenge for the dead.
For instance, Lamentations 5:18 says:
For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk upon it.
And Nehemiah 4:3:
Now Tobiah the Ammonite was by him, and he said, Even that which they are building, if a fox go up, he shall break down their stone wall.
However, the reason I was startled by the verse at first was that I didn’t remember seeing it before.
The American version of the Liturgy of the Hours has this:
You have crushed us in a place of sorrows
and covered us with the shadow of death (Grail Psalter)
The Revised Standard Version renders it:
that thou shouldst have broken us in the place of jackals,
and covered us with deep darkness. (RSV, Psalm 44:19)
But, the Vulgate has:
quoniam deiecisti nos in loco draconum et operuisti nos umbra mortis (Vulgate, Psalm 44:20)
My translation of the Vulgate:
since you have cast us down in a place of dragons and covered us with the shadow of death
The Septuagint says:
οτι εταπεινωσας ημας εν τοπω κακωσεως και επεκαλυψεν ημας σκια θανατου (LXX, Psalm 43:20)
My translation of the LXX:
because you have set us low in a place of affliction and covered us with a shadow of death.
The relevant words from the Hebrew are: בִּמְקֹ֣ום תַּנִּ֑ים (WLC, Psalm 44:20) which literally means “in a place of dragons.” The word for ‘dragon’ is the same word that is used to describe sea-monsters, the golden serpent that Moses makes, etc.
Hmmm…
