Psalms 16:13
Arise, O Lord, disappoint him and supplant him; deliver my soul from the wicked one: thy sword
Open Psalms 16:13 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Exsurge, Domine : præveni eum, et supplanta eum : eripe animam meam ab impio ; frameam tuam
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀνάστηθι, Κύριε, πρόφθασον αὐτοὺς καὶ ὑποσκέλισον αὐτούς, ῥῦσαι τὴν ψυχήν μου ἀπὸ ἀσεβοῦς, ῥομφαίαν σου
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 17:13
- קוּמָ֤ה יְהוָ֗ה קַדְּמָ֣ה פָ֭נָיו הַכְרִיעֵ֑הוּ פַּלְּטָ֥ה נַ֝פְשִׁ֗י מֵרָשָׁ֥ע חַרְבֶּֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
Disappoint. Hebrew, "meet him," as an enemy, Leviticus xxvi. 23.
Thy sword. The wicked are employed by God to chastise the just, and will then be thrown into the fire, Isaias x. 5., and Jeremias l. 23. (Calmet)
They little think that t hey are subservient to the designs of Providence, as they attribute their success to their own might. Whether we beg that God would take his sword from the wicked, or that we may be freed from their malice, is much the same. (Berthier)
Hebrew may express the latter sentiment, "Deliver my soul from the wicked, thy sword, (14) the men of thy hand, worldings, whose portion is temporal, in this life," &c. (Haydock)
Many other versions may be given: (Calmet) by they all tend to shew the fleeting pleasures of God's enemies, who are thus rewarded for their transient virtues, and reserved for eternal torments. (Haydock)
Man is not sufficient to resist that power, which they exercise by God's permission. Hence David begs that it may be taken away. (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 VII
13. “Unless ye be converted,” He says, “He will brandish His sword” ( ver. 12 ). The Lord Man Himself may be taken to be God’s double-edged sword, that is, His spear, which at His first coming He will not brandish, but hideth as it were in the sheath of humiliation: but He will brandish it, when at the second coming to judge the quick and dead, in the manifest splendour of His glory, He shall flash light on His righteous ones, and terror on the ungodly. For in other copies, instead of, “He shall brandish His sword,” it has been written, “He shall make bright His spear:” by which word I think the last coming of the Lord’s glory most appropriately signified: seeing that is understood of His person, which another Psalm has, “Deliver, O Lord, my soul from the ungodly, Thy spear from the enemies of Thine hand. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XVII
12. “Arise, O Lord, prevent them, and cast them down” ( ver. 13 ). Arise, O Lord, Thou whom they suppose to be asleep, and regardless of men’s iniquities; be they blinded before by their own malice, that vengeance may prevent their deed; and so cast them down.