Psalms 21:31
And to him my soul shall live: and my seed shall serve him.
Open Psalms 21:31 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et anima mea illi vivet ; et semen meum serviet ipsi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τὸ σπέρμα μου δουλεύσει αὐτῷ· ἀναγγελήσεται τῷ κυρίῳ γενεὰ ἡ ἐρχομένη,
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 22:31
- זֶ֥רַע יַֽעַבְדֶ֑נּוּ יְסֻפַּ֖ר לַֽאדֹנָ֣י לַדּֽוֹר
Haydock's commentary
Shall. Hebrew, "and his soul he will not vivify," which gives no distinct meaning. Some join it with the preceding, All shall adore....yet he will not restore him to life. The living alone shall be able to sound forth God's praises, as it is often observed, Psalm vi. 6., and Isaias xxxviii. 18. (Calmet)
Chaldean, "the Lord will not give life to the wicked; but the race of Abraham shall praise him." Others again explain it of Jesus Christ, "because he has not spared his life," he shall see a long-lived seed (Isaias liii. 10.) in the Church, which shall praise him for ever. (Haydock)
V. sometimes signifies "because," and though it is not clear that it has this meaning here, the explication is very beautiful. None of the Greek versions admit the negation. They agree with the Vulgate; only Theodotion reads, "his soul;" making the prophet speak instead of the Messias. It is suspected that the Septuagint read i instead of v, and lu for la. The Masorets acknowledge 15 places in which this change would be proper. The learned observe many more. Thus 1 Paralipomenon xi. 20., in Hebrew we read that Abisai had "no (la) name among the three;" whereas it ought to be the reverse, (lu) ei nomen inter tres, "he was renowned," &c. (Berthier)
St. Jerome agrees with the present Hebrew, "and his soul shall not live." Protestants, "and none can keep alive his own soul." Symmachus, "whose soul shall live, and seed shall serve him." (Haydock)
"The Messias shall live for God, and his posterity shall serve him," (Berthier) as the faithful shall never cease to be influenced by his spirit, to testify their gratitude. (Haydock)
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 XXII
31. “And My Soul shall live to Him.” And My Soul, which in the contempt of this world seems to men as it were to die, shall live, not to itself, but to Him. “And My seed shall serve Him” ( ver. 30 ). And My deeds, or they who through Me believe on Him, shall serve Him.
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Gospel of St. John, John 3.6
Observe how He nowhere accuses the man of wickedness, but only of weakness and simplicity. “And what,” one may ask, “has this birth in common with Jewish matters?” Tell me rather what has it that is not in common with them? For the first-created man, and the woman formed from his side, and the barren women, and the things accomplished by water, I mean what relates to the fountain on which Elisha made the iron tool to swim, to the Red Sea which the Jews passed over, to the pool which the Angel troubled, to Naaman the Syrian who was cleansed in Jordan, all these proclaimed beforehand, as by a figure, the Birth and the purification which were to be. And the words of the Prophet allude to the manner of this Birth, as, “It shall be announced unto the Lord a generation which cometh, and they shall announce His righteousness unto a people that shall be born, whom the Lord hath made” ( Ps. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
10. Then, after distributing money to the poor and her fellow-servants so far as her means allowed, she proceeded to Bethlehem stopping only on the right side of the road to visit Rachel’s tomb. (Here it was that she gave birth to her son destined to be not what his dying mother called him, Benoni, that is the “Son of my pangs” but as his father in the spirit prophetically named him Benjamin, that is “the Son of the right hand).” After this she came to Bethlehem and entered into the cave where the Saviour was born. …
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).