Psalms 126:4
As arrows in the hand of the mighty, so the children of them that have been shaken.
Open Psalms 126:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sicut sagittæ in manu potentis, ita filii excussorum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὡσεὶ βέλη ἐν χειρὶ δυνατοῦ, οὕτως οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἐκτετιναγμένων.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 127:4
- כְּחִצִּ֥ים בְּיַד גִּבּ֑וֹר כֵּ֝֗ן בְּנֵ֣י הַנְּעוּרִֽים
Haydock's commentary
As arrows, &c. The offspring which God shall give his servants, that have been shaken and tossed about, (as the children of Israel were in their captivity) shall be like arrows in the hand of the mighty, which shall prosper and do great execution. (Challoner)
The patient sufferer will obtain a glorious recompense. (Worthington)
Children defend their parents.
Of them, &c. Hebrew, "of youth." (St. Jerome)
Such may be able to assist their aged parents, whereas those who are born in their old age must frequently be left orphans, (Haydock) and distressed. (Calmet)
Yet the Hebrew may well admit the sense of the Vulgate, as children will be more animated to revenge the wrongs of those, from whom they have received their life. The Jews are here represented in the state of persecution. (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 Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXVII
6. “Like as the arrows in the hand of the mighty one, even so are the children of those that are shot out” ( ver. 4 ). Whence hath sprung this heritage, brethren? Whence hath sprung so numerous a heritage? Some have been shot out from the Lord’s hand, as arrows, and have gone far, and have filled the whole earth, whence the Saints spring. For this is the heritage whereof it is said, “Desire of Me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.” And how doth this possession extend and increase unto the world’s uttermost parts? Because, “like as the arrows in the hand of the mighty one,” etc. Arrows are shot forth from the bow, and the stronger the arm which hath sent it forth, the farther flieth the arrow. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Marcella
In reply to a request from Marcella for information concerning two phrases in Ps. cxxvii. (“bread of sorrow,” v. 2 , and “children of the shaken off,” A.V. “of the youth,” v. 4 ). Jerome, after lamenting that Origen’s notes on the psalm are no longer extant, gives the following explanations: