Psalms 118:122
Uphold thy servant unto good: let not the proud calumniate me.
Open Psalms 118:122 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Suscipe servum tuum in bonum : non calumnientur me superbi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἔκδεξαι τὸν δοῦλόν σου εἰς ἀγαθά, μὴ συκοφαντησάτωσάν με ὑπερήφανοι.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:122
- עֲרֹ֣ב עַבְדְּךָ֣ לְט֑וֹב אַֽל יַעַשְׁקֻ֥נִי זֵדִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Uphold. Hebrew, "answer for," (St. Jerome) as a bondsman.
Unto good. Thus the law is insinuated, though it is not here expressed. (Berthier)
In attacking the devil, who is so experienced, we must take God with us, or we shall surely be overcome. (St. Augustine, tr. 4. in Joan.)
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 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist, Chapter 43
102. Augustin answered: Judas did not die for us, but Christ, to whom the Church dispersed throughout the world says, "So shall I have wherewith to answer him that reproacheth me: for I trust in Thy word." When, therefore, I hear the words of the Lord, saying, "Ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and even in the whole earth," and through the voice of His prophet, "Their sound is gone out through all the earth, and their words into the ends of the world," no bodily admixture of evil ever is able to disturb me, if I know how to say, "Be surety for Thy servant for good: let not the proud oppress me." I do not, therefore, concern myself about a vain calumniation when I have a substantial promise. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Ain
121. He next saith, “Take off Thy servant to that which is good, that the proud calumniate me not” ( ver. 122 ). They drive me on, that I may fall into evil; do Thou take me off to that which is good. They who rendered these words by the Latin, calumnientur, have followed a Greek expression, not commonly used in Latin. Have the words, Let not the proud calumniate me, the same force, as, Let them “not succeed in calumniating me”?