Psalms 136:5
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.
Open Psalms 136:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si oblitus fuero tui, Jerusalem, oblivioni detur dextera mea.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐὰν ἐπιλάθωμαί σου, Ἰερουσαλήμ, ἐπιλησθείη ἡ δεξιά μου·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 137:5
- אִֽם אֶשְׁכָּחֵ֥ךְ יְֽרוּשָׁלִָ֗ם תִּשְׁכַּ֥ח יְמִינִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Forgotten. May all that is most dear to us perish, if we do not serve God, (Worthington) and seek to procure the welfare of Jerusalem. (Haydock)
Yet they knew that the joy of their earthly abode in that city could not satisfy their desires. They allude, therefore, ultimately to heaven. (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 Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter V
Now, those who sing the Gospel to senseless people seem to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land, of which Christ is not the husbandman; but those who have put on and shone in the most pure and bright, and unmingled and pious and becoming, ornament of virginity, and are found barren and unproductive of unsettled and grievous passions, do not sing the song in a strange land; because they are not borne thither by their hopes, nor do they stick fast in the lusts of their mortal bodies, nor do they take a low view of the meaning of the commandments, but well and nobly, with a lofty disposition, they have regard to the promises which are above, thirsting for heaven as a congenial abode, whence God, approving their dispositions, promises with an oath to give them choice honours, appointing and establishing them “above His chief joy;” for He says thus: “If I forget thee, O Jerusa lem, let my r …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXII
4. Give heed, brethren, give heed, I entreat you. For it delighteth me yet to speak a few words to you of this beloved City. For “most glorious things of Thee have been spoken, City of God.” And, “if I forget Thee, O Jerusalem, let mine own right hand forget me.” For dear is the one Country, and truly but one Country, the only Country: besides Her whatsoever we have, is a sojourning in a strange land. I will say therefore that which ye may acknowledge, that of which ye may approve: I will call to your minds that which ye know, I will not teach that which ye know not. “Not first,” saith the Apostle, “that which is spiritual, but that which is natural, afterwards that which is spiritual.” Therefore the former city is greater by age, because first was born Cain, and afterwards Abel: but in these the elder shall serve the younger. The former greater by age, the latter greater in dignity. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXXVII
8. But take heed how thou dwellest among them, O people of God, O body of Christ, O high-born band of wanderers (for thy home is not here, but elsewhere), lest when thou lovest them, strivest for their friendship, and fearest to displease such men, Babylon begin to delight thee and thou forget Jerusalem. In fear then of this, see what the Psalmist subjoins, see what follows. “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem” ( ver. 5 ), amid the speeches of those who hold me captive, amid the speeches of treacherous men, amid the speeches of men who ask with ill intent, asking, yet unwilling to learn.…What then? “If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget me.”