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Dear Father, 
I would like to know whether in the Book of Proverbs 24,16, it is said “even if the just man sins seven times a day” or without  “a day“? 

Because I checked The Jerusalem Bible, the latest version, and it does not have it, I looked at the Italian CEI bible of the 70s and of 2008, but neither have it, I really cannot find the addition “a day”.

Thank you for your clarification,

Best regards

Answer from the priest

Dear friend,
1. In Proverbs 16,24 it is read: “For the just man falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked stumble to ruin”.

2. The Bible scholar Giuseppe Girotti, now blessed Giuseppe Girotti, writes: “Seven times”, a round number to say more and more as it is read in Matthew 18,21-22: “Then Peter approaching asked him, “Lord, if my brother sins against me, how often must I forgive him? As many as seven times? Jesus answered, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy times seven”. And: “And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, «I am sorry», you should forgive him»” (Luke 17,4)”.

3. Father Girotti goes on: “In some manuscripts you can find Septies in die cadit iustus” (the just man falls seven times a day). Many modern mystics follow this message. But the words in die (a day) are not present in any ancient texts, neither Jewish, nor Greek, nor Syriac, and neither in the Vulgate. 

They may be explained as a reminiscence of the psalm 119,164: “Seven times a day I praise you because your judgments are righteous” or of Luke 17,4”.

4. Therefore, although the words are not present in the Bible ma only in some manuscripts, in fact in many texts and in preaching the text of these “some manuscripts” has prevailed and still does.

On the other hand, it is indeed true that pride slips into the accomplishment of good deeds.

Thus some spiritual authors, repeating a statement that in the book of Isaiah refers to Christ’s passion “ He is a sore from his sole to the tip of his hair” (cfr. Is 1,6), acknowledges that each deed of ours is like a dirty filthy cloth before God (cfr. Is 64,5).

5. The Council of Trent seem to draw inspiration from such a statement when stating: “Indeed in this mortal life even the saint and the just sometimes fall in at least minor and everyday sins, also called venial sins, without stopping being just. It is for the humble  invocation: “Forgive us our debts” (Mt 6,12)”  (DS 1537).

6. This is still true even if our Father Girotti highlights that “Calvinists quoted Pr 16,24 to prove that human nature is fundamentally depraved. It is true that some ascetic authors see in such falls just as many venial sins that do not deprive men of their life full of grace.

But it is more accurate to say we are not talking at all about moral falls, sins, but about tests, misfortunes”.

Such interpretation is due to its context as at verse 15 it is read: “do not lay a trap to the just man and from the text the verb phol , that is falls, does not mean fall in sin but fall in some disaster” (The Books of Wisdom, comment to Pr 24,16).

Wishing you well, I bless you and  remember you in my prayers.

Father Angelo.