Psalms 34:14
As a neighbour and as an own brother, so did I please: as one mourning and sorrowful so was I humbled.
Open Psalms 34:14 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quasi proximum et quasi fratrem nostrum sic complacebam ; quasi lugens et contristatus sic humiliabar.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὡς πλησίον, ὡς ἀδελφὸν ἡμέτερον, οὕτως εὐηρέστουν· ὡς πενθῶν καὶ σκυθρωπάζων οὕτως ἐταπεινούμην.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 35:14
- כְּרֵֽעַ כְּאָ֣ח לִ֭י הִתְהַלָּ֑כְתִּי כַּאֲבֶל אֵ֝֗ם קֹדֵ֥ר שַׁחֽוֹתִי
Haydock's commentary
Please, complacebam, "treat lovingly." (Haydock)
Vulgate follows the regimen of the Septuagint euerestoun, which may govern an accusative case. Hebrew is plainer, "I walked," (Berthier) or "behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother." (Protestants) (Haydock)
So. Septuagint seem to have explained am, "truly," instead of mother; as the points would determine the Hebrew, "like one who bewails his mother;" (Berthier) or, "like a mother mourning, I bowed down in grief." (St. Jerome)
An ancient Greek interpreter has, "like one mourning for a brother born of the same mother." I felt the affliction of my enemies and sympathized with them, endeavouring to alleviate their distress as much as possible. (Calmet)
Such was the conduct of David, the figure of the Messias; so that the expressions which seem too strong, must not be taken for imprecations. (Berthier)
Christ was the good Samaritan who relieved the wounded man, Luke x. (Worthington)
St. Paul admonishes us to weep with those who weep, Romans xii. 15. (Menochius)
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 On Christian Doctrine, Whether Angels are to Be Reckoned Our Neighbors
33. But now, if every one to whom we ought to show, or who ought to show to us, the offices of mercy is by right called a neighbor, it is manifest that the command to love our neighbor embraces the holy angels also, seeing that so great offices of mercy have been performed by them on our behalf, as may easily be shown by turning the attention to many passages of Holy Scripture. And on this ground even God Himself, our Lord, desired to be called our neighbor. For our Lord Jesus Christ points to Himself under the figure of the man who brought aid to him who was lying half dead on the road, wounded and abandoned by the robbers. And the Psalmist says in his prayer, “I behaved myself as though he had been my friend or brother.” But as the Divine nature is of higher excellence than, and far removed above, our nature, the command to love God is distinct from that to love our neighbor. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXV
17. “As a Neighbour, as our Brother, so I pleased Him: as one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled myself” ( ver. 14 ). Now looketh He back to His Own Body: let us now look to this. When we rejoice in prayer, when our mind is calmed, not by the world’s prosperity, but by the light of Truth: (who perceiveth this light, knoweth what I say, and he seeth and acknowledgeth what is said, “As a Neighbour, as our Brother, so I pleased Him”): even then our soul pleaseth God, not placed afar off, for, “In Him,” saith one, “we live and move and have our being,” but as a Brother, as a Neighbour, as a Friend. But if it be not such that it can so rejoice, so shine, so approach, so cleave unto Him, and seeth itself far off thence, then let it do what followeth, “As one mourning and sorrowful, so I humbled Myself. …