Psalms 118:109
My soul is continually in my hands: and I have not forgotten thy law.
Open Psalms 118:109 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Anima mea in manibus meis semper, et legem tuam non sum oblitus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἡ ψυχή μου ἐν ταῖς χερσὶ διὰ παντός, καὶ τὸν νόμον σου οὐκ ἐπελαθόμην.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:109
- נַפְשִׁ֣י בְכַפִּ֣י תָמִ֑יד וְ֝תֽוֹרָתְךָ֗ לֹ֣א שָׁכָֽחְתִּי
Haydock's commentary
My hands. In danger of being thrown by, or of falling, (Worthington) ready to appear before God's tribunal. I watch over myself, and strive to keep my soul tranquil. The prophet might have all this in view. (Berthier)
Most of the fathers read, "in thy hands," under God's protection. This is denied by St. Jerome (ad Sun.) though the commentary which goes under his name, and was written in the same age, has thy. The other reading is, however, more correct. The Greeks made use of a similar expression, to shew the danger of losing a treasure. (Athen. xiii. 4.) (Calmet)
Such is our soul, which we must fear to lose. (St. Gregory, Mor. vii. 6.) (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
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Nun
108. “My soul is alway in Thy hand” ( ver. 109 ). Some copies read, “in my hand:” but most, “in Thy hand;” and this latter is indeed easy. For “the souls of the righteous are in God’s hand: in whose hand are both we and our words.” “And I do not forget Thy law:” as if his memory were aided to remember God’s law by the hands of Him in whose hands is his soul. But how the words, “My soul is in my hands,” can be understood, I know not. For these are the words of the righteous, not of the ungodly; of one who is returning to the Father, not departing from the Father.…Is it perhaps said, “My soul is in my hands,” in this sense, as if he offered it to God to be quickened? Whence in another passage it is said, “Unto Thee, O Lord, have I lifted up my soul.” Since here too he had said above, “Quicken Thou me.”