Psalms 30:12
I am become a reproach among all my enemies, and very much to my neighbours; and a fear to my acquaintance. They that saw me without fled from me.
Open Psalms 30:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Super omnes inimicos meos factus sum opprobrium, et vicinis meis valde, et timor notis meis ; qui videbant me foras fugerunt a me.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- παρὰ πάντας τοὺς ἐχθρούς μου ἐγενήθην ὄνειδος, καὶ τοῖς γείτοσίν μου σφόδρα, καὶ φόβος τοῖς γνωστοῖς μου· οἱ θεωροῦντές με ἔξω ἔφυγον ἀπ᾽ ἐμοῦ·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 31:12
- מִכָּל צֹרְרַ֨י הָיִ֪יתִי חֶרְפָּ֡ה וְלִשֲׁכֵנַ֨י מְאֹד֮ וּפַ֪חַד לִֽמְיֻדָּ֫עָ֥י רֹאַ֥י בַּח֑וּץ נָדְד֥וּ מִמֶּֽנִּי
Haydock's commentary
Among. Literally, "above;" super. (Haydock)
Houbigant would exchange l for m, in Hebrew "to all," &c., which seems more agreeable to the sequel, and does not contradict the Vulgate. (Berthier)
David complains that none of his enemies were treated so severely as himself, (Haydock) though they were very wicked. (Menochius)
They all looked upon him with disdain, and even his friends fled from him. This is the picture of the world. A man fallen into distress is an object of general contempt. (Calmet)
Yet we ought rather to remember that such a one is sacred: sacra res est miser: and that he ought to excite our compassion. (Haydock)
Fear. People are afraid to have it known that they were ever acquainted with me, (Calmet) lest they should be involved in my misery. (Haydock)
My friends dare not converse with me. (Worthington)
Si malè res cedit, superest tibi nullus amicus:
Omnia fortunæ sunt inimica malæ. (Lucian Anthol.)
If fortune frown, no friend dares shew his face,
All flee the wretched, and abhor their place.
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 XXXI
12. “I have been made a reproach above all mine enemies” ( ver 11 ). All the wicked are my enemies; and nevertheless they for their wickednesses are tortured only till they confess: I then have overpassed their reproach, I, whose confession death doth not follow, but racking pains follow upon it. “And to my neighbours too much.” This hath seemed too much to them, who were already drawing near to know Thee, and to hold the faith that I hold. “And a fear to mine acquaintance.” And into my very acquaintance I struck fear by the example of my dreadful tribulation. “They that did see me, fled without from me.” Because they did not understand my inward and invisible hope, they fled from me into things outward and visible.
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter VIII. Christ, so far as He is true Son of God, has no Lord, but only so far as He is Man; as is shown by His words in which He addressed at one time the Father, at another the Lord. How many heresies are silenced by one verse of Scripture! We must distinguish between the things that belong to Christ as Son of God or as Son of David. For under the latter title only must we ascribe it to Him that He was a servant. Lastly, he points out that many passages cannot be taken except as referring to the Incarnation
108. Learn, then, what this means: “He took upon Him the form of a servant.” It means that He took upon Him all the perfections of humanity in their completeness, and obedience in its completeness. And so it says in the thirtieth Psalm: “Thou hast set my feet in a large room. I am made a reproach above all mine enemies. Make Thy face to shine upon Thy servant.” “Servant” means the Man in whom He was sanctified; it means the Man in whom He was anointed; it means the Man in whom He was made under the law, made of the Virgin; and, to put it briefly, it means the Man in whose person He has a mother, as it is written: “O Lord, I am Thy Servant, I am Thy Servant, and the Son of Thy hand-maid;” and again: “I am cast down and sore humbled.”