Psalms 118:66
Teach me goodness and discipline and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments.
Open Psalms 118:66 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Bonitatem, et disciplinam, et scientiam doce me, quia mandatis tuis credidi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- χρηστότητα καὶ παιδίαν καὶ γνῶσιν δίδαξόν με, ὅτι ταῖς ἐντολαῖς σου ἐπίστευσα.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 119:66
- ט֤וּב טַ֣עַם וָדַ֣עַת לַמְּדֵ֑נִי כִּ֖י בְמִצְוֺתֶ֣יךָ הֶאֱמָֽנְתִּי
Haydock's commentary
Goodness to others (Menochius) in want. (Worthington)
Discipline, or patience under chastisement. (St. Augustine) (Theodoret)
Hebrew, "wisdom," or discernment how to act, and knowledge of what regards thy law and revealed truths. (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
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter VIII. Philosophy is Knowledge Given by God
And should one say that it was through human understanding that philosophy was discovered by the Greeks, still I find the Scriptures saying that understanding is sent by God. The psalmist, accordingly, considers understanding as the greatest free gift, and beseeches, saying, “I am Thy servant; give me understanding.” And does not David, while asking the abundant experience of knowledge, write, “Teach me gentleness, and discipline, and knowledge: for I have believed in Thy commandments?” He confessed the covenants to be of the highest authority, and that they were given to the more excellent. …
Clement of Alexandria The Stromata, or Miscellanies, Chapter VII. What Sort of Prayer the Gnostic Employs, and How It is Heard by God
Now the excellence of knowledge is evidently presented by the prophet when he says, “Benignity, and instruction, and knowledge teach me,” magnifying the supremacy of perfection by a climax.
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Teth
63. “O learn me sweetness, and understanding, and knowledge,” he saith, “for I have believed Thy commandments” ( ver. 66 ). He prayeth these things may be increased and perfected. For they who said, “Lord, increase our faith,” had faith. And as long as we live in this world, these are the words of those who are making progress. But he addeth, “understanding,” or, as most copies read, “discipline.” Now the word discipline, for which the Greeks use παιδεία , is employed in Scripture, where instruction through tribulation is to be understood: according to the words, “Whom the Lord loveth He disciplineth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.” In the literature of the Church this is usually called discipline. …