Psalms 43:15
Thou hast made us a byword among the Gentiles: a shaking of the head among the people.
Open Psalms 43:15 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Posuisti nos in similitudinem gentibus ; commotionem capitis in populis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἔθου ἡμᾶς εἰς παραβολὴν ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, κίνησιν κεφαλῆς ἐν τοῖς λαοῖς.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 44:15
- תְּשִׂימֵ֣נוּ מָ֭שָׁל בַּגּוֹיִ֑ם מְנֽוֹד רֹ֝֗אשׁ בַּל אֻמִּֽים
Haydock's commentary
Head, out of contempt. (Menochius)
The Gentiles propose us as an example of a people fallen a prey to the divine indignation, 4 Kings xix. 21., and Lamentations ii. 15.
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 XLIV
12. “Thou madest us a reproach to our neighbours; a scorn and a derision to them that are round about us” ( ver. 13 ). “Thou madest us a similitude among the heathen” ( ver. 14 ). What is meant by a “similitude”? It is when men in imprecating a curse make a “similitude” of his name whom they detest. “So mayest thou die;” “So mayest thou be punished!” What a number of such reproaches were then uttered! “So mayest thou be crucified!” Even in the present day there are not wanting enemies of Christ (those very Jews themselves), against whom whensoever we defend Christ, they say unto us, “So mayest thou die as He did.” For they would not have inflicted that kind of death had they not an intense horror of dying by such a death: or had they been able to comprehend what mystery was contained in it. …
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).