Job 14:13
Who will grant me this, that thou mayst protect me in hell, and hide me till thy wrath pass, and appoint me a time when thou wilt remember me?
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quis mihi hoc tribuat, ut in inferno protegas me, et abscondas me donec pertranseat furor tuus, et constituas mihi tempus in quo recorderis mei ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἰ γὰρ ὄφελον ἐν ᾅδῃ με ἐφύλαξας, ἔκρυψας δέ με ἕως ἂν παύσηταί σου ἡ ὀργή, καὶ τάξῃ μοι χρόνον ἐν ᾧ μνείαν μου ποιήσῃ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- מִ֤י יִתֵּ֨ן בִּשְׁא֬וֹל תַּצְפִּנֵ֗נִי תַּ֭סְתִּירֵנִי עַד שׁ֣וּב אַפֶּ֑ךָ תָּ֤שִׁ֥ית לִ֖י חֹ֣ק וְתִזְכְּרֵֽנִי
Haydock's commentary
That thou mayst protect me in hell. That is, in the state of the dead; and in the place where souls are kept waiting for their Redeemer; (Challoner) and in the grave, where the body awaits the resurrection. (Haydock)
These words are repeated in the office for the dead, in the name of the souls in purgatory. (Denis the Carthusian, a. 34.)
They are adduced in proof of limbo. But sheol denotes also "the grave." (Amama)
What then? The soul is not confined there. It must consequently be explained of the lower receptacle for souls, as well as of the grave. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
Minucius Felix The Octavius of Minucius Felix, Chapter XXXIV
“Further, in respect of the burning up of the world, it is a vulgar error not to believe either that fire will fall upon it in an unforeseen way, or that the world will be destroyed by it. For who of wise men doubts, who is ignorant, that all things which have had a beginning perish, all things which are made come to an end? The heaven also, with all things which are contained in heaven, will cease even as it began. The nourishment of the seas by the sweet waters of the springs shall pass away into the power of fire. The Stoics have a constant belief that, the moisture being dried up, all this world will take fire; and the Epicureans have the very same opinion concerning the conflagration of the elements and the destruction of the world. …
St Augustine Book XIII, Chapter XIV
15. And so say I too, O my God, where art Thou? Behold where Thou art! In Thee I breathe a little, when I pour out my soul by myself in the voice of joy and praise, the sound of him that keeps holy-day. And yet it is “cast down,” because it relapses and becomes a deep, or rather it feels that it is still a deep. Unto it doth my faith speak which Thou hast kindled to enlighten my feet in the night, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God;” His “word is a lamp unto my feet.” Hope and endure until the night, the mother of the wicked, until the anger of the Lord be overpast, whereof we also were once children who were sometimes darkness, the remains whereof we carry about us in our body, dead on account of sin, “until the day break and the shadows flee away.” “Hope thou in the Lord.” In the morning I shall stand in Thy presence, and contemplate …