Psalms 48:19
For in his lifetime his soul will be blessed: and he will praise thee when thou shalt do well to him.
Open Psalms 48:19 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia anima ejus in vita ipsius benedicetur ; confitebitur tibi cum benefeceris ei.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ὅτι ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτοῦ ἐν τῇ ζωῇ αὐτοῦ εὐλογηθήσεται, ἐξομολογήσεταί σοι ὅταν ἀγαθύνῃς αὐτῷ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 49:19
- כִּֽי נַ֭פְשׁוֹ בְּחַיָּ֣יו יְבָרֵ֑ךְ וְ֝יוֹדֻ֗ךָ כִּי תֵיטִ֥יב לָֽךְ
Haydock's commentary
To him. The wicked are very selfish. They will seem grateful to those who are in power, and will cringe to get riches. (Haydock)
Yea, they will seem to thank God for their prosperity, (Worthington) or rather, they will assume these appearances with men. Hebrew, "he will bless his soul during life, (Berthier) with all pleasures," Luke xii. 19., and Deuteronomy xxix. 19. (Calmet)
To him, is not in Hebrew, which insinuates, that people are flattered during their prosperity. (Haydock)
Yet Houbigant would restore this word, "and he will praise thee when thou shalt have done him a kindness;" c may have been placed for i, as Symmachus seems to have read auto. (Haydock)
The proper use of riches is to do good, Luke xvi. 9.
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
7. Let your love observe: “For his soul shall be blessed in his life” ( ver. 18 ). As long as he lived he did well for himself. This all men say, but say falsely. It is a blessing from the mind of the blesser, not from the truth itself. For what sayest thou? Because he ate and drank, because he did what he chose, because he feasted sumptuously, therefore he did well with himself. I say, he did ill for himself. Not I say, but Christ. He did ill for himself. For that rich man, when he feasted sumptuously every day, was supposed to do well with himself: but when he began to burn in hell, then that which was supposed to be well was found to be ill. For what he had eaten with men above, he digested in hell beneath. Unrighteousness I mean, brethren, on which he used to feast. He used to eat costly banquets with the mouth of flesh, with his heart’s mouth he used to eat unrighteousness. …