Psalms 139:2
Deliver me, O Lord, from the evil man: rescue me from the unjust man.
Open Psalms 139:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Eripe me, Domine, ab homine malo ; a viro iniquo eripe me.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ἐξελοῦ με, Κύριε, ἐξ ἀνθρώπου πονηροῦ, ἀπὸ ἀνδρὸς ἀδίκου ῥῦσαί με,
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 140:2
- חַלְּצֵ֣נִי יְ֭הוָה מֵאָדָ֣ם רָ֑ע מֵאִ֖ישׁ חֲמָסִ֣ים תִּנְצְרֵֽנִי
Haydock's commentary
Man. Saul, (Calmet) Judas, (St. Hilary) or self-love, the old man, who is our most dangerous enemy. (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 CXL
4. “Deliver me, O Lord, from the wicked man” ( ver. 1 ). Not from one only, but from the class; not from the vessels only, but from their prince himself, that is, the devil. Why “from man,” if he meaneth from the devil? Because he too is called a man in a figure.…Now then being made light, not in ourselves, but in the Lord, let us pray not only against darkness, that is, against sinners, whom still the devil possesseth, but also against their prince, the devil himself, who worketh in the children of disobedience. “Deliver me from the unrighteous man.” The same as “from the wicked man.” For he called him wicked because unrighteous, lest perchance thou shouldest think that any unrighteous man could be a good man. …