Psalms 41:9
In the daytime the Lord hath commanded his mercy; and a canticle to him in the night. With me is prayer to the God of my life.
Open Psalms 41:9 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- In die mandavit Dominus misericordiam suam, et nocte canticum ejus ; apud me oratio Deo vitæ meæ.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἡμέρας ἐντελεῖται Κύριος τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ, καὶ νυκτὸς δηλώσει· παρ᾽ ἐμοὶ προσευχὴ τῷ θεῷ τῆς ζωῆς μου.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 42:9
- יוֹמָ֤ם יְצַוֶּ֬ה יְהוָ֨ה חַסְדּ֗וֹ וּ֭בַלַּיְלָה שירה עִמִּ֑י תְּ֝פִלָּ֗ה לְאֵ֣ל חַיָּֽי
Haydock's commentary
Night. In affliction, as well as in prosperity, we must praise the Lord. Roman Septuagint, "in the night he will manifest it."
Mercy. (Haydock)
This is very beautiful, but not agreeable with the original. (Berthier)
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 Lectures or Tractates on the Gospel According to St. John, Chapter XVI. 1-4
4. Such, then, is the meaning of these words: “They will put you out of the synagogues;” but have no fear of solitude: inasmuch as, when separated from their assembly, you will assemble so many in my name, that they, in very fear lest the temple, that was with them, and all the sacraments of the old law, should be deserted, will slay you: actually, in thus shedding your blood, full of the notion that they are doing God service. An illustration surely of the apostle’s words, “They have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge;” when they imagine that they are doing God service in slaying His servants. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XLII
15. Therefore follows: “The Lord will commend His loving-kindness in the day-time; and in the night-time will He declare it” ( ver. 8 ). In tribulation no man has leisure to hear: attend, when it is well with you; hear, when it is well with you; learn, when you are in tranquillity, the discipline of wisdom, and store up the word of God as you do food. For in tribulation every one must be profited by what he heard in the time of security. For in prosperity God “commends to thee His mercy,” in case thou serve Him faithfully, for He frees thee from tribulation; but it is “in the night” only that He “declares” His mercy to thee, which He “commended” to thee by day. When tribulation shall actually come, He will not leave thee destitute of His help; He will show thee that which He commended to thee in the daytime is true. …
St Gregory Nazianzen Funeral Oration on the Great S. Basil, Bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia
67. I will only say this of him. Whenever I handle his Hexaemeron, and take its words on my lips, I am brought into the presence of the Creator, and understand the words of creation, and admire the Creator more than before, using my teacher as my only means of sight. Whenever I take up his polemical works, I see the fire of Sodom, by which the wicked and rebellious tongues are reduced to ashes, or the tower of Chalane, impiously built, and righteously destroyed. Whenever I read his writings on the Spirit, I find the God Whom I possess, and grow bold in my utterance of the truth, from the support of his theology and contemplation. …