Psalms 131:12
If thy children will keep thy covenant, and these my testimonies which I shall teach them: Their children also for evermore shall sit upon thy throne.
Open Psalms 131:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si custodierint filii tui testamentum meum, et testimonia mea hæc quæ docebo eos, et filii eorum usque in sæculum sedebunt super sedem tuam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐὰν φυλάξωνται οἱ υἱοί σου τὴν διαθήκην μου, καὶ τὰ μαρτύριά μου ταῦτα ἃ διδάξω αὐτούς, καὶ οἱ υἱοὶ αὐτῶν ἕως αἰῶνος καθιοῦνται ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον σου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 132:12
- אִֽם יִשְׁמְר֬וּ בָנֶ֨יךָ בְּרִיתִי֮ וְעֵדֹתִ֥י ז֗וֹ אֲלַ֫מְּדֵ֥ם גַּם בְּנֵיהֶ֥ם עֲדֵי עַ֑ד יֵ֝שְׁב֗וּ לְכִסֵּא לָֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
If. The promises made to the carnal posterity of David were conditional, and seem to imply, that they would forfeit them. (St. Hilary)
But those regarding the Messias are absolute. (Calmet)
Yet heaven is only promised to his children in the Church, if they observe God's commandments, Romans viii. 17. (Worthington)
The kings of Juda seem not to have believed these threats; and many Christians live as if heaven required no conditions on their part. God knew what would be the event; but he speaks thus to testify their free-will, and his desire to preserve the temporal throne of David, at least till the coming of the Messias, if the Jews had proven faithful. (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 CXXXII
12. What then? “The Lord hath made a faithful oath unto David, and He shall not shrink from it; Of the fruit of thy body shall I set upon thy seat. If thy children will keep My covenant and My testimonies that I shall learn them, their children also shall sit upon thy seat for evermore” ( ver. 12 ). If thy children keep My covenant, their children also shall sit for evermore. The parents establish a desert on behalf of their children. What if his children should keep the covenant, and their children should not keep it? Why is the happiness of the children promised in relation to their parents’ deservings? For what saith He, “If thy children will keep My covenant, their children also shall sit for evermore”, He saith not, if thy children keep My covenant, they shall sit upon thy seat; and if their children keep My covenant, they also shall sit upon thy seat: but he saith, “If thy children …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 11.28-31
I think it is of David that he says “they obtained promises.” But of what sort were these? Those in which He said that his “seed should sit upon” his “throne.” ( Ps. cxxxii. 12 .)