Psalms 121:4
For thither did the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord: the testimony of Israel, to praise the name of the Lord.
Open Psalms 121:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Illuc enim ascenderunt tribus, tribus Domini : testimonium Israël, ad confitendum nomini Domini.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐκεῖ γὰρ ἀνέβησαν αἱ φυλαὶ Κυρίου, μαρτύριον τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, τοῦ ἐξομολογήσασθαι τῷ ὀνόματι Κυρίου·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 122:4
- שֶׁשָּׁ֨ם עָל֪וּ שְׁבָטִ֡ים שִׁבְטֵי יָ֭הּ עֵד֣וּת לְיִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל לְ֝הֹד֗וֹת לְשֵׁ֣ם יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
The. This was the testimony, (Haydock) or ordinance of the Lord, (Calmet) which Israel had solemnly engaged to perform. (Haydock)
All were obliged to repair thither thrice in the year; (Exodus xxiii. 17.; Menochius) and this contributed most to the splendour of the city. (Calmet)
Houbigant would translate "the congregations of Israel;" or juxta may be understood, "according to the testimony." (Berthier)
The tribes shall be all united, (Calmet) and come to Jerusalem, as all mankind should embrace the true faith in the Catholic Church. (Worthington)
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, Psalm CXXII
7. “For thither the tribes went up” ( ver. 4 ). We were asking whither he ascendeth who hath fallen; for we said, it is the voice of a man who is ascending, of the Church rising. Can we tell whither it ascendeth? whither it goeth? whither it is raised? “Thither,” he saith, “the tribes went up.” Whither? To “partaking in the Same.” But what are the tribes? Many know, many know not. For if we use the word “curies” in its proper sense, we understand nothing, save the “curies” which exist in each particular city, whence the terms “curiales” and “decuriones,” that is, the citizens of a curia or a decuria; and ye know that each city hath such curies. But there are, or were at one time, curies of the people in those cities, and one city hath many curies, as Rome hath thirty-five curies of the people. These are called tribes. …