COMPUNCTION. This is a word particularly set apart in the Language of the Church, to signify sorrow for our Sins. Have Compunction1 in your Bed for what you have said in your Heart. Psal. iv. 4. Ps. cix. 17The wicked hath persecuted the Poor, he hath mortified him, whose heart is full of Compunction, Compunctum corde mortificare.
But the Septuagint use frequently the word Catanuxis, which signifies Compunction, in a very different sense for Sleep, Heaviness, Stupefaction, Hardness, Insensibility. For example, Isaiah; The Isai. xxix. 10. רוח תרדמה Vulg. Spiritum soporis. 70. πνεῦμα Κατανύξεως.Lord hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, of heaviness, of dulness. The Septuagint translate it the spirit of compunction. And S. Paul hath followed them, Rom. xi. 8. Dedit eis Dominus spiritum compunctionis. Thus in Psalm. lx. 5. where we read in the Hebrew, Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment, Wine which intoxicates, and takes away the Senses, such as was given to persons condemned to death. The Septuagint read the Wine of Compunction. Lastly, in the passage above cited, of the beginning of this Article, In cubilibus vestris compungimini, Psal. iv. 4. The Hebrew imports, Speak in your hearts upon your beds, and continue in silence. The Septuagint, Be touched with compunction on your beds.
In all these instances we must recur to the original, and by the word Compunction in Isaiah xxix. and Psalm lx. must understand deep Sleep, such as disturbs and clouds our reason. In some other places; for example, Acts ii. 35. Compuncti sunt corde. And Psalm cix. 17. Compunctum corde mortificare, we are to understand by it Compunction of Heart. But in other passages, Psalm xxix. 13. Ut cantet tibi gloria mea, & non compungar; the Hebrew reads, Et non taceat, that my Glory may publish thy praises, and not be silent. And Psal. xxxiv. 16. Dissipati sunt nec compuncti, the Hebrew reads, They tore me to pieces with their malicious tongues, and were not silent.
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Footnotes
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Translators’ note. Our Author here, as usual, follows the Latin Vulgate, which runs thus, Quæ dicitis in cordibus vestris in cubilibus vestris compungimini. The incomparable Grotius disapproves of this Version, and produces one more accurate, and agreeing better with the Hebrew. Cogitate in corde vestro, in cubili vestro, & silete; id est, pœnitentiam agite according to the Arabic Interpretation. Our English Translation, which seldom varies from the Original, is in this Passage a literal Explanation of it, Commune in your own heart upon your bed, and be still. The Hebrew is, אמרו בלבבכם על־משכבכם ודמו ↩