Psalms 138:15
My bone is not hidden from thee, which thou hast made in secret: and my substance in the lower parts of the earth.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Non est occultatum os meum a te, quod fecisti in occulto ; et substantia mea in inferioribus terræ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- οὐκ ἐκρύβη τὸ ὀστοῦν μου ἀπὸ σοῦ ὃ ἐποίησας ἐν κρυφῇ, καὶ ἡ ὑπόστασίς μου ἐν τοῖς κατωτάτω τῆς γῆς·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 139:15
- לֹא נִכְחַ֥ד עָצְמִ֗י מִ֫מֶּ֥ךָּ אֲשֶׁר עֻשֵּׂ֥יתִי בַסֵּ֑תֶר רֻ֝קַּ֗מְתִּי בְּֽתַחְתִּיּ֥וֹת אָֽרֶץ
Haydock's commentary
Bone. Hebrew, "substance."
And my. Hebrew, "and curiously wrought." (Protestants) (Haydock)
Septuagint have read rather differently, and give a very good sense; "and is my substance in?" &c. Most explain this also of the embryo. But it seems rather to refer to the corpse in the grave, Psalm lxii. 10. (Calmet) (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 Hippolytus On the Psalms, Section XII
On the Words in Psalm cxxxix. 15 : “My Substance or (Bones) Was Not Hid from Thee, Which Thou Madest in Secret.”
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXXXIX
15. “My bone is not hid from Thee, which Thou hast made in secret” ( ver. 15 ). “His bone,” he saith. What the people call ossum, is in Latin called os. This is the word in the Greek. For we might think the word os is here the one which makes in the plural ora, not os (short), which makes ossa. He saith then, I have a certain bone ( ossum ) in secret. For this word let us prefer to use; better is it that scholars find fault with us, than that the people understand us not. “There is then,” saith he, “a certain bone of mine, within, hidden; Thou hast made within a bone for me in secret, yet is it not hidden from Thee. In secret hast Thou made it, but hast Thou therefore hidden it from Thyself? This my bone made by Thee in secret men see not, men know not: Thou knowest, who hast made. …
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter XIV. The Son is of one substance with the Father
113. Furthermore, the Psalmist hath in the words following made it plain that we must understand the divine substance to be mentioned when he saith: “Thine eyes did see My being, [as] not the effect of working;” inasmuch as the Son is not made, nor one of God’s works, but the begotten Word of eternal power. He called Him “ ἀχατέργαστον ,” meaning that the Word neither made nor created, is begotten of the Father without the witnessing presence of any created being. Howbeit, we have abundance of testimony besides this. Let us grant that the substance here spoken of is the bodily substance, provided you also yourself say not that the Son of God is something effected by working, but confess His uncreated Godhead.