Psalms 128:1
Often have they fought against me from my youth, let Israel now say.
Open Psalms 128:1 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Canticum graduum. Sæpe expugnaverunt me a juventute mea, dicat nunc Israël ;
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ᾨδὴ τῶν ἀναβαθμῶν. Πλεονάκις ἐπολέμησάν με ἐκ νεότητός μου, εἰπάτω δὴ Ἰσραήλ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 129:1
- שִׁ֗יר הַֽמַּ֫עֲל֥וֹת רַ֭בַּת צְרָר֣וּנִי מִנְּעוּרַ֑י יֹֽאמַר נָ֝א יִשְׂרָאֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Canticle. In which David, (Haydock) or the Jews, at their return, after they had got the better of their enemies, render thanks to God. (St. Chrysostom) (Calmet)
It may suit the Church, Jesus Christ, and every person: as none can escape trouble. (Berthier)
Fought against. Hebrew, "afflicted."
Expugnaverunt might seem to imply that they had obtained the victory. But this was not the case, at least eventually, though the people of God might sometimes be oppressed, and yield to sin. (Haydock)
Youth. Since the Israelites left Egypt, Osee ii. 15., and Jeremias ii. 2. (Calmet)
From the beginning, the just Abel, Seth, Abraham, &c., have been persecuted. (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 LXXXVIII
“A friend Thou hast put far from me: and mine acquaintance from my misery” ( ver. 18 ). All these evils have taken place, and are happening in the limbs of Christ’s body, and God turns away His face from their prayers, by not hearing as to what they wish for, since they know not that the fulfilment of their wishes would not be good for them. The Church is “poor,” as she hungers and thirsts in her wanderings for that food with which she shall be filled in her own country: she is “in toils from her youth up,” as the very Body of Christ saith in another Psalm, “Many a time have they overcome me from my youth.” And for this reason some of her members are lifted up even in this world, that in them may be the greater lowliness. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXIX
2. “Many a time have they fought against me from my youth up” ( ver. 1 ). The Church speaketh of those whom She endureth: and as if it were asked, “Is it now?” The Church is of ancient birth: since saints have been so called, the Church hath been on earth. At one time the Church was in Abel only, and he was fought against by his wicked and lost brother Cain. At one time the Church was in Enoch alone: and he was translated from the unrighteous. At one time the Church was in the house of Noah alone, and endured all who perished by the flood, and the ark alone swam upon the waves, and escaped to shore. At one time the Church was in Abraham alone, and we know what he endured from the wicked. The Church was in his brother’s son, Lot, alone, and in his house, in Sodom, and he endured the iniquities and perversities of Sodom, until God freed him from amidst them. …