Psalms 37:17
For I said: Lest at any time my enemies rejoice over me: and whilst my feet are moved, they speak great things against me.
Open Psalms 37:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia dixi : Nequando supergaudeant mihi inimici mei ; et dum commoventur pedes mei, super me magna locuti sunt.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι εἶπα Μή ποτε ἐπιχαρῶσίν μοι οἱ ἐχθροί μου, καὶ ἐν τῷ σαλευθῆναι πόδας μου ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ἐμεγαλορημόνησαν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 38:17
- כִּֽי אָ֭מַרְתִּי פֶּן יִשְׂמְחוּ לִ֑י בְּמ֥וֹט רַ֝גְלִ֗י עָלַ֥י הִגְדִּֽילוּ
Haydock's commentary
For. On this account I turn to thee, and entreat thee not to suffer my enemies to gain the victory. (Worthington)
My humble and earnest prayer is another motive of confidence.
My enemies is not expressed in Hebrew. (Calmet)
I decline saying any thing in my own defence, lest I should offend God. (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 Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXVIII
21. “For I said, Let not mine enemies ever rejoice over me. And when my feet slip, they magnify themselves against me” ( ver. 16 ). Again He returns to the infirmity of His Body: and again the Head takes heed of Its “feet.” The Head is not in such a manner in Heaven, as to forsake what It has on earth; He evidently sees and observes us. For sometimes, as is the way of this life, our feet are “turned aside,” and they slip by falling into some sin; there the tongues of the enemy rise up with the bitterest malignity. From this then we discern what they really had in view, even while they kept silence. Then they speak with an unsparing harshness; rejoicing to have discovered what they ought to have grieved for. …