Psalms 146:8
Who covereth the heaven with clouds, and prepareth rain for the earth. Who maketh grass to grow on the mountains, and herbs for the service of men.
Open Psalms 146:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Qui operit cælum nubibus, et parat terræ pluviam ; qui producit in montibus fœnum, et herbam servituti hominum ;
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τῷ περιβάλλοντι τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν νεφέλαις, τῷ ἑτοιμάζοντι τῇ γῇ ὑετόν, τῷ ἐξανατέλλοντι ἐν ὄρεσι χόρτον καὶ χλόην τῇ δουλείᾳ τῶν ἀνθρώπων,
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 147:8
- הַֽמְכַסֶּ֬ה שָׁמַ֨יִם בְּעָבִ֗ים הַמֵּכִ֣ין לָאָ֣רֶץ מָטָ֑ר הַמַּצְמִ֖יחַ הָרִ֣ים חָצִֽיר
Haydock's commentary
Clouds. This is represented as something wonderful, (Job v. 9., and xxxvii. 6.) though conformable to the laws of nature. The preservation of things is like a new creation. (Calmet)
And the herb, &c. Herbam, (Psalm ciii. 14.; Haydock) is now wanting in Hebrew, as it was in the days of St. Jerome and the Chaldean, though the Septuagint, Aquila, &c., read it, and it is not probable that they would borrow it from another psalm. (Berthier)
Their copies must therefore have varied. (Haydock)
The herb, may denote corn, and all vegetables for food. These productions evince the goodness and wisdom of God, (Berthier) as well as his power. (Worthington)
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 CXLVII
12. …“Who covereth the heaven with clouds, who prepareth rain for the earth” ( ver. 8 ). Now thou art alarmed, because thou canst not see the heaven: when it hath rained thou shalt gather fruit, and shalt see clear sky. Perhaps our God hath done this. For had we not the obscurity of Scripture as an occasion, we should not say to you those things wherein ye rejoice. This then perhaps is the rain whereat ye rejoice. It would not be possible for it to be expressed to you by our tongue, were it not that God covereth with clouds of figures the heaven of the Scriptures. For this purpose willed He that the words of the Prophets should be obscure, that the servants of God might afterwards have that by interpreting which they might flow over the ears and hearts of men, that they might receive from the clouds of God the fatness of spiritual joy. …
St Gregory Nazianzen Letters on the Apollinarian Controversy, To Cledonius the Priest Against Apollinarius
If, however, they rely on the passage, The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us, and because of this erase the noblest part of Man (as cobblers do the thicker part of skins) that they may join together God and Flesh, it is time for them to say that God is God only of flesh, and not of souls, because it is written, “As Thou hast given Him power over all Flesh,” and “Unto Thee shall all Flesh come;” and “Let all Flesh bless His holy Name,” meaning every Man. Or, again, they must suppose that our fathers went down into Egypt without bodies and invisible, and that only the Soul of Joseph was imprisoned by Pharaoh, because it is written, “They went down into Egypt with threescore and fifteen Souls,” and “The iron entered into his Soul,” a thing which could not be bound. …