Psalms 117:2
Let Israel now say that he is good: that his mercy endureth for ever.
Open Psalms 117:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dicat nunc Israël : Quoniam bonus, quoniam in sæculum misericordia ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἰπάτω δὴ οἶκος Ἰσραὴλ ὅτι ἀγαθός, ὅτι εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 118:2
- יֹֽאמַר נָ֥א יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל כִּ֖י לְעוֹלָ֣ם חַסְדּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
That he is good, is not here in Hebrew. The Septuagint insert the words in the two next verses. The people, priests, and all who fear God among the Gentiles must praise him (Psalm cxiii. 11.; Calmet) particularly now under the new law, since they have received greater benefits. (Worthington)
Our Saviour seems to allude to this passage, observing that God alone is good, (Luke xviii. 28.) to intimate that the man who gave him that title, must also acknowledge his divinity. (St. Augustine) (Berthier)
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
Origen Origen De Principiis, Chapter V
4. They again recall us, however, to the words of Scripture, by bringing forward that celebrated question of theirs, affirming that it is written, “A bad tree cannot produce good fruits; for a tree is known by its fruit.” What, then, is their position? What sort of tree the law is, is shown by its fruits, i.e., by the language of its precepts. For if the law be found to be good, then undoubtedly He who gave it is believed to be a good God. But if it be just rather than good, then God also will be considered a just legislator. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXVIII
2. “Let Israel now confess that He is good, and that His mercy endureth for ever” ( ver. 2 ). “Let the house of Aaron now confess that His mercy endureth for ever” ( ver. 3 ). “Yea, let all now that fear the Lord confess that His mercy endureth for ever” ( ver. 4 ). Ye remember, I suppose, most beloved, what is the house of Israel, what is the house of Aaron, and that both are those that fear the Lord. For they are “the little and the great,” who have already in another Psalm been happily introduced into your hearts: in the number of whom all of us should rejoice that we are joined together, in His grace who is good, and whose mercy endureth for ever; since they were listened to who said, “May the Lord increase you more and more, you and your children;” that the host of the Gentiles might be added to the Israelites who believed in Christ, of the number of whom are the Apostles our father …