Psalms 146:9
Who giveth to beasts their food: and to the young ravens that call upon him.
Open Psalms 146:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui dat jumentis escam ipsorum, et pullis corvorum invocantibus eum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ διδόντι τοῖς κτήνεσι τροφὴν αὐτῶν καὶ τοῖς νοσσοῖς τῶν κοράκων τοῖς ἐπικαλουμένοις αὐτόν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 147:9
- נוֹתֵ֣ן לִבְהֵמָ֣ה לַחְמָ֑הּ לִבְנֵ֥י עֹ֝רֵ֗ב אֲשֶׁ֣ר יִקְרָֽאוּ
Haydock's commentary
Young. Literally, "the sons of ravens," which may denote those birds in general, as well as their young. God provides for all. Many fables have been recounted concerning ravens, as if they neglected or forgot their young ones; and the Hebrews seem to have entertained some of these opinions, to which the sacred writers conform themselves, Job xxxviii. 41. (Calmet)
St. Luke (xii. 24.) specifies ravens, though St. Matthew (vi. 26.) has the birds, when relating the same speech.
Upon him, must be understood in Hebrew. See Psalm ciii. 21., (Berthier) and Joel i. 20. (Calmet)
If God take such care of the neglected ravens, how much more will he provide for his servants? (St. Chrysostom) (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
14. “And giveth unto the cattle their food” ( ver. 9 ). These are the cattle he meaneth, even God’s flocks. God defraudeth not His flock of their food through men, for whose “service He maketh the grass to grow.” “And to the young of the ravens that call upon Him.” Shall we perchance think this, that the ravens call upon God to give them their food? Think not that the unreasoning creature calls upon God: no creature knows how to call upon God, save the reasonable alone. Consider it as spoken in a figure, lest thou think, as some evil men say, that the souls of men migrate into cattle, dogs, swine, ravens. Give this no place in your hearts or in your faith. The soul of man is made after the image of God: He will not give His image to dog or swine. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew VI. 24
Of this lesson David also lays the foundation from old time, saying enigmatically on this wise, “Thou openest Thine hand, and fillest every living thing with bounty;”and again, “To Him that giveth to the beasts their food, and to the young ravens that call upon Him.”
St Ambrose Epistle LXIII: To the Church at Vercellæ
79. At that place the ravens recognized the Prophet of the Lord, whom the Jews did not recognize. The ravens fed him, whom that royal and noble race were persecuting. What is Jezebel, who persecuted him but the Synagogue, vainly fluent, vainly abounding in the Scriptures, which it neither keeps nor understands? What ravens fed him but those whose young call upon Him, to whose cattle He gives food as we read; “to the young ravens that call upon Him.” Those ravens knew whom they were feeding, who were close upon understanding, and brought food to that stream of sacred knowledge.
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).