Psalms 21:3
O my God, I shall cry by day, and thou wilt not hear: and by night, and it shall not be reputed as folly in me.
Open Psalms 21:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Deus meus, clamabo per diem, et non exaudies ; et nocte, et non ad insipientiam mihi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὁ θεός μου, κεκράξομαι ἡμέρας πρὸς σὲ καὶ οὐκ εἰσακούσῃ, καὶ νυκτός, καὶ οὐκ εἰς ἄνοιαν ἐμοί.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 22:3
- אֱֽלֹהַ֗י אֶקְרָ֣א י֭וֹמָם וְלֹ֣א תַעֲנֶ֑ה וְ֝לַ֗יְלָה וְֽלֹא דֽוּמִיָּ֥ה לִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Folly. My cry proceeds not from impotent rage, Luke iv. 28. (Eusebius, Agel.) (Menochius)
I know that thou wilt grant my request. (Calmet)
I shall not cry in vain. (Theodoret)
It is not for my own folly that I suffer. (Geneb.)
"Many cry and are not heard, yet it is for their advantage, and not out of folly." (St. Augustine)
Christ prayed on the cross, as he had done in the garden, to have the bitter chalice removed. But this was not blameable, as it was done with entire submission. (Worthington)
The cry of the lips, or of human nature, which would be free from suffering, was not heard: (Haydock) because the cry of the heart, which desired that the justice of God should be satisfied, was much louder; and this petition was granted by Him who denied nothing to his Son, John xi. 41. (Calmet)
This should be our model. Submission and perseverance will always be crowned. Hebrew has now d instead of r, in the word dumiya, "silence," which is also good; "there is no silence for me." In the night (Berthier) of death, (Haydock) God granted the petition. (Berthier)
Aquila gives this idea, non tacebis, as St. Jerome observes: "thou wilt do what I desire." Hebrew may also mean: I have no rest, or I cry incessantly. (Calmet)
The prayer of Christ for relief, was conditional. He absolutely desired God's will to be accomplished, and thus he was heard, ver. 25., and Hebrews v. 7. He was our pattern. (St. Augustine, ep. 120.) (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
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Christ's Connection with the Creator Shown. Many Quotations Out of the Old Testament Prophetically Bear on Certain Events of the Life of Jesus--Such as His Ascent to Praying on the Mountain; His Selection of Twelve Apostles; His Changing Simon's Name to Peter, and Gentiles from Tyre and Sidon Resorting to Him
Surely to Sion He brings good tidings, and to Jerusalem peace and all blessings; He goes up into a mountain, and there spends a night in prayer, and He is indeed heard by the Father. Accordingly turn over the prophets, and learn therefrom His entire course. “Into the high mountain,” says Isaiah, “get Thee up, who bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up Thy voice with strength, who bringest good tidings to Jerusalem.” “They were mightily astonished at His doctrine; for He was teaching as one who had power.” And again: “Therefore, my people shall know my name in that day.” What name does the prophet mean , but Christ’s? “That I am He that doth speak, even I.” For it was He who used to speak in the prophets, the Word, the Creator’s Son. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXII
3. “My God, I will cry unto Thee in the daytime, and Thou wilt not hear” ( ver. 2 ). My God, I will cry unto Thee in the prosperous circumstances of this life, that they be not changed; and Thou wilt not hear, because I shall cry unto Thee in the words of my sins. “And in the night-season, and not to my folly.” And so in the adversities of this life will I cry to Thee for prosperity; and in like manner Thou wilt not hear. And this Thou doest not to my folly, but rather that I may have wisdom to know what Thou wouldest have me cry for, not with the words of sins out of longing for life temporal, but with the words of turning to Thee for life eternal.
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LX
7. “That Thy beloved may be delivered: save me with Thy right hand, and hearken unto me” ( ver. 5 ). With Thy right hand save me, Lord: so save me as that at the right hand I may stand. Not any safety temporal I require, in this matter Thy Will be done. For a time what is good for us we are utterly ignorant: for “what we should pray for as we ought we know not:” but “save me with Thy right hand,” so that even if in this time I suffer sundry tribulations, when the night of all tribulations hath been spent, on the right hand I may be found among the sheep, not on the left hand among the goats. …
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part I. Containing Conferences I-X, Chapter XVII. How the four kinds of supplication were originated by the Lord
These four kinds of supplication the Lord Himself by His own example vouchsafed to originate for us, so that in this too He might fulfil that which was said of Him: “which Jesus began both to do and to teach.” For He made use of the class of supplication when He said: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;” or this which is chanted in His Person in the Psalm: “My God, My God, look upon Me, why hast Thou forsaken me,” and others like it. …