Psalms 121:2
Our feet were standing in thy courts, O Jerusalem.
Open Psalms 121:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Stantes erant pedes nostri in atriis tuis, Jerusalem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἑστῶτες ἦσαν οἱ πόδες ἡμῶν ἐν ταῖς αὐλαῖς Ἰερουσαλήμ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 122:2
- עֹ֭מְדוֹת הָי֣וּ רַגְלֵ֑ינוּ בִּ֝שְׁעָרַ֗יִךְ יְרוּשָׁלִָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Were. Hebrew also, "shall," &c. Yet many of the Levites had officiated in the temple, 1 Esdras iii. 12.
Courts, or gates, where justice was administered. (Calmet)
We may better (Haydock) rejoice in the Church, (Worthington) and in the prospect of heaven. (Haydock)
"At the news, it seemed as if our feet had been," &c. (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's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapter XVI
We shall, however, expound according to the strength that is given to us the reasons which move us to recognize here a harmony; and in doing so we entreat Him who gives to every one that asks and strives acutely to enquire, and we knock that by the keys of higher knowledge the hidden things of Scripture may be opened to us. And first, let us fix our attention on the words of John, beginning, “And Jesus went up to Jerusalem.” Now Jerusalem, as the Lord Himself teaches in the Gospel according to Matthew, “is the city of the great King.” It does not lie in a depression, or in a low situation, but is built on a high mountain, and there are mountains round about it, and the participation of it is to the same place, and thither the tribes of the Lord went up, a testimony for Israel. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXII
3. “Our feet were standing in the courts of Jerusalem” ( ver. 2 )…Consider what thou wilt be there; and although thou art as yet on the road, place this before thine eyes, as if thou wert already standing, as if thou wert already rejoicing without ceasing among the Angels; as if that which is written were realized in thee: “Blessed are they that dwell in Thy house; they will be alway praising Thee.” “Our feet stood in the courts of Jerusalem.” What Jerusalem? This earthly Jerusalem also is wont to be called by the name: though this Jerusalem is but the shadow of that. …
St Gregory Nazianzen The Second Oration on Easter
XIX. And as to shoes , let him who is about to touch the Holy Land which the feet of God have trodden, put them off, as Moses did upon the Mount, that he may bring there nothing dead; nothing to come between Man and God. So too if any disciple is sent to preach the Gospel, let him go in a spirit of philosophy and without excess, inasmuch as he must, besides being without money and without staff and with but one coat, also be barefooted, that the feet of those who preach the Gospel of Peace and every other good may appear beautiful. But he who would flee from Egypt and the things of Egypt must put on shoes for safety’s sake, especially in regard to the scorpions and snakes in which Egypt so abounds, so as not to be injured by those which watch the heel which also we are bidden to tread under foot. And concerning the staff and the signification of it, my belief is as follows. …