Psalms 123:5
Our soul hath passed through a torrent: perhaps our soul had passed through a water insupportable.
Open Psalms 123:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- torrentem pertransivit anima nostra ; forsitan pertransisset anima nostra aquam intolerabilem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἄρα διῆλθεν ἡ ψυχὴ ἡμῶν τὸ ὕδωρ τὸ ἀνυπόστατον.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 124:5
- אֲ֭זַי עָבַ֣ר עַל נַפְשֵׁ֑נוּ הַ֝מַּ֗יִם הַזֵּֽידוֹנִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Insupportable. Without bottom, or beyond our strength, anupostaton. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "Then the swelling waters it had passed over our soul." (Montanus) (Calmet)
St. Jerome has, "perhaps they," &c., which is more correct. See Psalm lxviii. 3. (Haydock)
A torrent implies sudden great troubles. (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 CXXIV
4. …“When their fury was enraged upon us.” They are now in anger, they now openly rage: “perchance the water had drowned us” ( ver. 4 ). By water he meaneth ungodly nations: and we shall see what sort of water in the following verses. Whoever had consented unto them, water would have overwhelmed him. For he would die by the death of the Egyptians, he would not pass through after the example of the Israelites. For ye know, brethren, that the people of Israel passed through the water, by which the Egyptians were overwhelmed. But what sort of water is this? It is a torrent, it flows with violence, but it will pass by…Hence He, our Head, first drinketh, of whom it is said in the Psalms, “He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall He lift up His head.” For our Head is already exalted, because He drank of the torrent by the way; for our Lord hath suffered. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXIV
5. In the first place, what meaneth, “Per chance our soul hath passed over”? ( ver. 5 ). Understand however the meaning to be this: “Thinkest thou our soul hath passed over?” and why do they say, “Thinkest thou”? Because the greatness of the danger maketh it hardly credible that he hath escaped. They have endured a great death: they have been in great dangers; they have been so much oppressed, that they almost gave consent while alive, and were all but swallowed up alive: now therefore that they have escaped, now that they are secure, but still remember the danger, the great danger, say, “Thinkest thou our soul hath passed over the water without substance?”
St Basil The Letters, Against Eustathius of Sebasteia
1. There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak, is the saying of the Preacher. Time enough has been given to silence, and now the time has come to open my mouth for the publication of the truth concerning matters that are, up to now, unknown. The illustrious Job bore his calamities for a long time in silence, and ever showed his courage by holding out under the most intolerable sufferings, but when he had struggled long enough in silence, and had persisted in covering his anguish in the bottom of his heart, at last he opened his mouth and uttered his well-known words. …