Psalms 40:13
But thou hast upheld me by reason of my innocence: and hast established me in thy sight for ever.
Open Psalms 40:13 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Me autem propter innocentiam suscepisti ; et confirmasti me in conspectu tuo in æternum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐμοῦ δὲ διὰ τὴν ἀκακίαν ἀντελάβου, καὶ ἐβεβαίωσάς με ἐνώπιόν σου εἰς αἰῶνα.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 41:13
- וַאֲנִ֗י בְּ֭תֻמִּי תָּמַ֣כְתָּ בִּ֑י וַתַּצִּיבֵ֖נִי לְפָנֶ֣יךָ לְעוֹלָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Innocence. Jesus was the spotless lamb incapable of sin. He effaced it by his blood, and is therefore crowned with glory, Hebrews ii. 9., and Philippians ii. 9. (Calmet)
This innocence made him a fit victim for sin. (Worthington)
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 XLI
13. “But as for Me, Thou upholdest Me, because of Mine innocence” ( ver. 12 ). Truly innocence; integrity without sin, requiting without debt, scourging without desert. “Thou upholdest Me because of Mine innocence, and hast made Me strong in Thy sight for ever.” Thou hast made Me strong for ever, Thou madest Me weak for a time: Thou hast made Me strong in Thy sight, Thou madest Me weak in sight of men. What then? Praise to Him, glory to Him. “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.” For He is the God of Israel, our God, the God of Jacob, the God of the younger son, the God of the younger people. Let none say, Of the Jews said He this, I am not Israel; rather the Jews are not Israel. For the elder son, he is the elder people reprobated; the younger, the people beloved. …
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).