Psalms 48:15
They are laid in hell like sheep: death shall feed upon them. And the just shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their help shall decay in hell from their glory.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Sicut oves in inferno positi sunt : mors depascet eos. Et dominabuntur eorum justi in matutino ; et auxilium eorum veterascet in inferno a gloria eorum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὡς πρόβατα ἐν ᾅδῃ ἔθεντο, θάνατος ποιμαίνει αὐτούς· καὶ κατακυριεύσουσιν αὐτῶν οἱ εὐθεῖς τὸ πρωί, καὶ ἡ βοήθεια αὐτῶν παλαιωθήσεται ἐν τῷ ᾅδῃ ἐκ τῆς δόξης αὐτῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 49:15
- כַּצֹּ֤אן לִֽשְׁא֣וֹל שַׁתּוּ֮ מָ֤וֶת יִ֫רְעֵ֥ם וַיִּרְדּ֘וּ בָ֤ם יְשָׁרִ֨ים לַבֹּ֗קֶר וצירם לְבַלּ֥וֹת שְׁא֗וֹל מִזְּבֻ֥ל לֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
In the morning. That is, in the resurrection to a new life; when the just shall judge and condemn the wicked.
From their glory. That is, when their short-lived glory in this world shall be past, and be no more. (Challoner)
Sic transit gloria mundi. (Haydock)
Then the world shall be turned upside down. (Calmet)
The just shall have their day, (Menochius) when the beautiful palaces of the wicked shall be exchanged for darkness, and horrible torments. (Haydock)
"Their bodies shall grow old in hell, because they have stretched out their hand, and destroyed the habitation of the house of his majesty." (Targum)
Their figure shall be destroyed in hell, after his dwelling. (St. Jerome)
They can rescue themselves no more than sheep. Those whom they oppressed shall be their judges. All friends will forsake them. (Worthington)
Crowds shall be confined to those mansions, where the fire is not extinguished. (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, Part 2
1. “Like sheep laid in hell, death is their shepherd” ( ver. 14 ). Whose? Of those whose way is a stumbling-block to themselves. Whose? Of those who mind only things present, while they think not of things future: of those who think not of any life, but of that which must be called death. Not without cause, then, like sheep in hell, have they death to their shepherd. What meaneth, “they have death to their shepherd”? For is death either some thing or some power? Yea, death is either the separation of the soul from the body, or a separation of the soul from God, and that indeed which men fear is the separation of the soul from the body: but the real death, which men do not fear, is the separation of the soul from God. And ofttimes when men fear that which doth separate the soul from the body, they fall into that wherein the soul is separated from God. This then is death. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Part 2
9. “He shall enter even unto the generations of his fathers” ( ver. 19 ): that is, he shall imitate his fathers. For the unrighteous, that now are, have brothers, have fathers. Unrighteous men of old, are the fathers of the present; and they that are now unrighteous, are the fathers of unrighteous posterity: just as the fathers of the righteous, the righteous of old, are the fathers of the righteous that now are; and they that now are, are the fathers of them that are to be. The Holy Spirit hath willed to show that righteousness is not evil when men murmur against her: but these men have their father from the beginning, even to the generation of their fathers. Two men Adam begat, and in one was unrighteousness, in one was righteousness: unrighteousness in Cain, righteousness in Abel. …
St Gregory the Great Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, To Anastasius, Bishop of Antioch
Further, what ills we suffer from the swords of barbarians, and what from the perversity of judges, I shrink from relating to your Blessedness, lest I should increase your groaning, which I ought to diminish by consolation. But in all these things the precepts of our Master comfort me, who says, These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation ( John xvi. 33 ). For I consider to whom it was said, This is your hour, and the power of darkness ( Luke xxii. 53 ). If, then, the hour of light will be afterwards, since it is said to the elect, Ye are the light of the world ( Matth. v. 14 ), and as it is written, The righteous shall have dominion over them in the morning ( Ps. xlviii. 15 ), whatever we suffer in the hour of the power of darkness is not to be deplored.