Psalms 17:35
Who teacheth my hands to war: and thou hast made my arms like a brazen bow.
Open Psalms 17:35 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- qui docet manus meas ad prælium. Et posuisti, ut arcum æreum, brachia mea,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- διδάσκων χεῖράς μου εἰς πόλεμον, καὶ ἔθου τόξον χαλκοῦν τοὺς βραχίονάς μου·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 18:35
- מְלַמֵּ֣ד יָ֭דַי לַמִּלְחָמָ֑ה וְֽנִחֲתָ֥ה קֶֽשֶׁת נְ֝חוּשָׁ֗ה זְרוֹעֹתָֽי
Haydock's commentary
And thou. Chaldean gives the same sense. "He strengthens," &c. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "and a brazen bow is broken by my arms." (Montanus)
Protestants, "a bow of steel." Perhaps not knowing that the ancients had the art of making brass answer the same purposes. See Proclus, Hesiod, &c. (Haydock)
They made all sorts of weapons of it. Job (xx. 24.) seems even to insinuate that it was harder than iron. Our brass is too brittle. To break a bow, often means to obtain a victory, 1 Kings ii. 4., and Jeremias xlix. 5. (Calmet)
David gained many over a lion or a bear, over Goliath, &c. (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 XVIII
35. “Who teacheth my hands for battle” ( ver. 34 ). Who teacheth me to work for the overthrow of mine enemies, who strive to shut the kingdom of heaven against us. “And Thou hast made mine arms as a bow of steel.” And Thou hast made my earnest striving after good works unwearied.