“To hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death;”
The affirmation 'to hear the groans of the prisoners, to set free those who were doomed to die' specifies the objects of God's saving action: the imprisoned and those facing execution. The term 'prisoners' (asurim) echoes the language of exile and captivity, evoking Israel's own history of bondage and liberation. The phrase 'groans of the prisoners' dignifies inarticulate suffering, treating even the sounds of anguish as a form of prayer that reaches God. The conjunction with 'those doomed to die' (benei mavet) emphasizes the extremity of the condition God addresses; deliverance is for those for whom human help is impossible. This verse grounds God's compassion in concrete, particular acts of liberation within history, refusing to spiritualize or delay divine mercy. The specificity of the prisoners and the doomed makes this verse a powerful affirmation of God's preferential option for the suffering and condemned.
Church Fathers on Psalms 102:20
1. Behold, one poor man prays, and prays not in silence. We may therefore hear him, and see who he is: whether it be not perchance He, of whom the Apostle says, “Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might be rich.” 2 Corinthians 8:9 If it is He, then, how is He poor? For in what sense He is rich, who sees not? What then is richer than He, by whom riches were made, even those which are not true riches? For through Him we have even…
Nicene & Post-Nicene / Ante-Nicene Fathers translations · public domain
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