Psalms 142:7
Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
Open Psalms 142:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Velociter exaudi me, Domine ; defecit spiritus meus. Non avertas faciem tuam a me, et similis ero descendentibus in lacum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ταχὺ εἰσάκουσόν μου, Κύριε, ἐξέλιπεν τὸ πνεῦμά μου· μὴ ἀποστρέψῃς τὸ πρόσωπόν σου ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ, καὶ ὁμοιωθήσομαι τοῖς καταβαίνουσιν εἰς λάκκον.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 143:7
- מַ֘הֵ֤ר עֲנֵ֨נִי יְהוָה֮ כָּלְתָ֪ה ר֫וּחִ֥י אַל תַּסְתֵּ֣ר פָּנֶ֣יךָ מִמֶּ֑נִּי וְ֝נִמְשַׁ֗לְתִּי עִם יֹ֥רְדֵי בֽוֹר
Haydock's commentary
Pit. Or "lake," meaning (Haydock) the grave. (Calmet)
If man be left to himself, he will presently yield to sin, from which he will not be delivered without God's grace.
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 CIV
41. But wherefore dost Thou do this? wherefore dost Thou hide Thy face, that they may be troubled? “Thou shalt take away their breath, and they shall fail.” Their breath was their pride; they boast, they attribute things to themselves, they justify themselves. Hide, therefore, Thy face, that they may be troubled: take away their breath, and let them fail; let them cry unto Thee, “Hear me, O Lord, and that soon, for my spirit waxeth faint: hide not Thy face from me.” “Thou shalt take away their breath, and they shall fail, and shall be turned to their dust.” The man who repenteth of his sin discovereth himself, that he had not strength of himself; and doth confess unto God, saying, that he is earth and ashes. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CXLIII
8. “Speedily hear me, Lord” ( ver. 7 ). For what need of delay to inflame my thirst, when already I thirst so eagerly? Thou didst delay the rain, that I might drink and imbibe, not reject, Thy inflowing. If then Thou didst for this cause delay, now give; for “my spirit hath failed.” Let Thy Spirit fill me. This is the reason why Thou shouldest speedily hear me. I am now become “poor in spirit,” make Thou me “blessed in the kingdom of heaven.” For he in whom his own spirit liveth, is proud, is puffed up with his own spirit against God.…
St John Chrysostom The Commentary and Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Galatians and Ephesians, Ephesians 4:4-7
When thou hearest these words, think not of a mere removal from one place to another; for what Paul establishes in the Epistle to the Philippians ( Philip. ii. 5-8 .), that very argument is he also insisting upon here. In the same way as there, when exhorting them concerning lowliness, he brings forward Christ as an example, so does he here also, saying, “He descended into the lower parts of the earth.” For were not this so, this expression which he uses, “He became obedient even unto death” ( Philip. ii. 8, 9 .), were superfluous; whereas from His ascending, he implies His descent, and by “the lower parts of the earth,” he means “death,” according to the notions of men; as Jacob also said, “Then shall ye bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave.” ( Gen. xxxii. 48 .) And again as it is in the Psalm, “Lest I become like them that go down into the pit” ( Ps. cxliii. …