Psalms 51:8
The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say:
Open Psalms 51:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Videbunt justi, et timebunt ; et super eum ridebunt, et dicent :
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ὄψονται δίκαιοι καὶ φοβηθήσονται, καὶ ἐπ᾽ αὐτὸν γελάσονται καὶ ἐροῦσιν
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 52:8
- וְיִרְא֖וּ צַדִּיקִ֥ים וְיִירָ֗אוּ וְעָלָ֥יו יִשְׂחָֽקוּ
Haydock's commentary
Laugh, at the last day, when they will have nothing to fear, nor the wicked to hope. In this life, the just are full of compassion; but they cannot but approve of God's judgments. (Calmet)
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 LII
8. “Wherefore God shall destroy thee at the end” ( ver. 6 ): though now thou seemest to flourish like grass in the field before the heat of the sun. For, “All flesh is grass, and the brightness of man as the bloom of grass: the grass hath withered, and the bloom hath fallen down: but the word of the Lord abideth for everlasting.” Behold that to which thou mayest bind thyself, to what “abideth for everlasting.” For if to grass, and to the bloom of grass, thou shalt have bound thyself, since the grass shall wither, and the bloom shall fall down, “God shall destroy thee at the end:” and if not now, certainly at the end He shall destroy, when that winnowing shall have come, and the heap of chaff from the solid grain shall have been separated. …
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter IV. How by reason of pride Lucifer was turned from an archangel into a devil
And that we may understand the power of its awful tyranny we see that that angel who, for the greatness of his splendour and beauty was termed Lucifer, was cast out of heaven for no other sin but this, and, pierced with the dart of pride, was hurled down from his grand and exalted position as an angel into hell. If then pride of heart alone was enough to cast down from heaven to earth a power that was so great and adorned with the attributes of such might, the very greatness of his fall shows us with what care we who are surrounded by the weakness of the flesh ought to be on our guard. But we can learn how to avoid the most deadly poison of this evil if we trace out the origin and causes of his fall. For weakness can never be cured, nor the remedies for bad states of health be disclosed unless first their origin and causes are investigated by a wise scrutiny. …