Psalms 120:6
The sun shall not burn thee by day: nor the moon by night.
Open Psalms 120:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Per diem sol non uret te, neque luna per noctem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἡμέρας ὁ ἥλιος οὐκ ἐκκαύσει σε, καὶ ἡ σελήνη τὴν νύκτα.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 121:6
- יוֹמָ֗ם הַשֶּׁ֥מֶשׁ לֹֽא יַכֶּ֗כָּה וְיָרֵ֥חַ בַּלָּֽיְלָה
Haydock's commentary
Night. Neither prosperity nor adversity shall hurt thee, (St. Jerome) or the Church. (Worthington)
Cold is said to burn or parch up, Genesis xxxi. 40. Justin (2) writes of the Scythians, Quanquam continuis frigoribus urantur, as the effects of extreme heat and cold are similar. The Jews were protected from both at their return; (Isaias iv. 6., and xlix. 10.; Calmet) though we may doubt of this explanation, as the text is applied to those in heaven, Apocalypse vii. 16. (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 Ten Homilies on the First Epistle of John, 1 John I. 1, II. 11
12. “He that loveth his brother abideth ( manet ) in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him.”, I beseech you by Christ: God is feeding us, we are about to refresh our bodies in the name of Christ; they both are in some good measure refreshed, and are to be refreshed: let the mind be fed. Not that I am going to speak for a long time, do I say this; for behold, the lesson is now coming to an end: but lest haply of weariness we should hear less attentively than we ought that which is most necessary. “He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is no scandal,” or “none occasion of stumbling, in him.” Who are they that take scandal or make scandal? They that are offended in Christ, and in the Church. They that are offended in Christ, are as if burnt by the sun, those in the Church as by the moon. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXI
7. “May the Lord shield thee upon the hand of thy right hand” ( ver. 6 ). I have said, and I believe ye have recognised it. For had ye not recognised it, and that from the Scriptures, ye would not signify your understanding of it by your voices. Since then ye have understood, brethren, consider what followeth; wherefore the Lord shieldeth thee “upon the hand of thy right hand,” that is, in thy faith, wherein we have received “power to become the sons of God,” and to be on His right hand: wherefore should God shield us? On account of offences. Whence come offences? Offences are to be feared from two quarters, for there are two precepts upon which the whole Law hangeth and the Prophets, the love of God and of our neighbour. The Church is loved for the sake of our neighbour, but God for the sake of God. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Nepotian
13. Do not angle for compliments, lest, while you win the popular applause, you do despite to God. “If I yet pleased men,” says the apostle, “I should not be the servant of Christ.” He ceased to please men when he became Christ’s servant. Christ’s soldier marches on through good report and evil report, the one on the right hand and the other on the left. No praise elates him, no reproaches crush him. He is not puffed up by riches, nor does he shrink into himself because of poverty. Joy and sorrow he alike despises. The sun does not burn him by day nor the moon by night. Do not pray at the corners of the streets, lest the applause of men interrupt the straight course of your prayers. Do not broaden your fringes and for show wear phylacteries, or, despite of conscience, wrap yourself in the self-seeking of the Pharisee. …