Psalms 28:1
A psalm for David, at the finishing of the tabernacle. Bring to the Lord, O ye children of God: bring to the Lord the offspring of rams.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Psalmus David, in consummatione tabernaculi. Afferte Domino, filii Dei, afferte Domino filios arietum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Ψαλμὸς τῷ Δαυείδ· ἐξοδίου σκηνῆς. Ἐνέγκατε τῷ κυρίῳ, υἱοὶ θεοῦ, ἐνέγκατε τῷ κυρίῳ υἱοὺς κριῶν· ἐνέγκατε τῷ κυρίῳ δόξαν καὶ τιμήν,
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 29:1
- מִזְמ֗וֹר לְדָ֫וִ֥ד הָב֣וּ לַֽ֭יהוָה בְּנֵ֣י אֵלִ֑ים הָב֥וּ לַ֝יהוָ֗ה כָּב֥וֹד וָעֹֽז
Haydock's commentary
Finishing. Septuagint, exodiou or exodou, may also signify "the going out;" (Haydock) as if the sacred ministers exhorted their successors to perform their duty in the ensuing week, or on the last day of the feast of tabernacles, Leviticus xxiii. 36. (Calmet)
Hebrew has only "A canticle of David," (Haydock) and the rest was not in the Hexapla in the time of Theodoret, so that many pay no attention to it. The author seems to have supposed that the psalm was composed when David had finished the tabernacle, on Sion. (Calmet) (2 Kings vi., and 1 Paralipomenon xvi.)
But the psalmist had in view things of far greater importance, the propagation of Christianity among many great potentates. (Worthington)
The Fathers explain it in this sense, though it may literally allude (Calmet) to the storm procured by the prayer of Elias, 3 Kings xviii. 1, 41. (Haydock)
It might be composed in a thunder-storm, and used on similar occasions, (Muis) when a person had to go from home. (Haydock)
The seven voices may allude to the seven sacraments, or trumpets, Apocalypse x. 3. (Berthier)
God. Septuagint seemed to have read Aleim, or they have taken elim in the same sense, as it signifies "the mighty" as well as "rams." On account of this ambiguity, a double translation is given either by the Septuagint, or rather by some later writer, who may have inserted the explanation, O ye children of God, bring ye to the Lord; (Haydock) which has crept from the margin into the text. (Amama)
It is marked as superfluous by Grabe, (Haydock) not being found in the best Greek copies; or at least have an obel, (Eusebius) to insinuate that it was not in Hebrew, in which state it appears in the Gal. Psalter, published in St. Jerome's works. (Calmet)
Read on
It is not contrary to the original, though more explicit, (Berthier) as the address is made to all the faithful, (Menochius) or to the priests and nobility. (Haydock)
The apostles are styled rams, because they beat down error with the two Testaments; whence bishops' mitres have two horns. (Lombard; Amama)
"Give praise to the Lord, ye troops of angels; render to the Lord glory and strength." (Chaldean) (Calmet)
Be grateful for the favours which are here recounted. (Worthington)
Most people now translate, "sons of the mighty." Yet St. Jerome and Houbigant have, "offspring of rams;" filios arietum. Bring lambs to the Lord, as the original may certainly mean; though many who are attached to the Hebrew allow also sons of God. (Berthier)
Montfaucon says that Origen marked with a lemniscus, what he judged "a better reading," and thus obelized the first of these versions, and added the second with an asterisk. This liberty has been attended both with good and bad consequences. (Kennicott)
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 An Answer to the Jews, Of Sacrifices
So, again, we show that sacrifices of earthly oblations and of spiritual sacrifices were predicted; and, moreover, that from the beginning the earthly were foreshown, in the person of Cain, to be those of the “elder son,” that is, of Israel; and the opposite sacrifices demonstrated to be those of the “younger son,” Abel, that is, of our people. For the elder, Cain, offered gifts to God from the fruit of the earth; but the younger son, Abel, from the fruit of his ewes. “God had respect unto Abel, and unto his gifts; but unto Cain and unto his gifts He had not respect. And God said unto Cain, Why is thy countenance fallen? hast thou not, if thou offerest indeed aright, but dost not divide aright, sinned? Hold thy peace. For unto thee shalt thy conversion be and he shall lord it over thee. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXIX
2. The Prophet speaks, “Bring unto the Lord, O ye Sons of God, bring unto the Lord the young of rams” ( ver. 1 ). Bring unto the Lord yourselves, whom the Apostles, the leaders of the flocks, have begotten by the Gospel. “Bring unto the Lord glory and honour” ( ver. 2 ). By your works let the Lord be glorified and honoured. “Bring unto the Lord glory to His name.” Let Him be made known gloriously throughout the world. “Worship the Lord in His holy court.” Worship the Lord in your heart enlarged and sanctified. For ye are His regal holy habitation.
St Gregory of Nyssa Against Eunomius, Thereafter he expounds the appellation of “Son,” and of “product of generation,” and very many varieties of “sons,” of God, of men, of rams, of perdition, of light, and of day
Well, what do we say to this? The divine Scripture knows how to use the word “Son” in both senses, so that in some cases such an appellation is derived from nature, in others it is adventitious and artificial. For when it speaks of “sons of men,” or “sons of rams,” it marks the essential relation of that which is begotten to that from which it has its being: but when it speaks of “sons of power,” or “children of God,” it presents to us that kinship which is the result of choice. And, moreover, in the opposite sense, too, the same persons are called “sons of Eli,” and “sons of Belial,” the appellation of “sons” being easily adapted to either idea. …