Psalms 54:4
At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.
Open Psalms 54:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- a voce inimici, et a tribulatione peccatoris. Quoniam declinaverunt in me iniquitates, et in ira molesti erant mihi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἀπὸ φωνῆς ἐχθροῦ καὶ ἀπὸ θλίψεως ἁμαρτωλοῦ· ὅτι ἐξέκλιναν ἐπ᾽ ἐμὲ ἀνομίαν, καὶ ἐν ὀργῇ ἐνεκότουν μοι.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 55:4
- מִקּ֤וֹל אוֹיֵ֗ב מִפְּנֵ֣י עָקַ֣ת רָשָׁ֑ע כִּי יָמִ֥יטוּ עָלַ֥י אָ֝֗וֶן וּבְאַ֥ף יִשְׂטְמֽוּנִי
Haydock's commentary
Upon me. When a person has fallen into distress, the world is ever ready to attribute it to some fault. Absalom accused his father of neglecting to judge, &c., 2 Kings xv. 2. The Jews calumniated and sought the death of Christ, whose agony in the garden is well described, (ver. 5.) as well as the consternation of David, at the sight of such a general revolt, (Calmet) which almost overwhelmed him. (Worthington)
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 LV
5. Whence then doth this man pray, set among evil men, with whose enmities he was being exercised? Why saith he, “I have been made sad in my exercise, and have been troubled”? While he is extending his love so as to love enemies, he hath been affected with disgust, being bayed at all around by the enmities of many men, by the frenzy of many and under a sort of human infirmity he hath sunk. He hath seen himself now begin to be pierced through with an evil suggestion of the devil, to bring on hatred against his enemies: wrestling against hatred in order to perfect love herself, in the very fight, and in the wrestling, he hath been troubled. For there is his voice in another Psalm, “Mine eye hath been troubled, because of anger.” And what followeth there? “I have waxen old among all mine enemies.” As if in storm and waves he were beginning to sink, like Peter. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XXI. We must guard against anger, before it arises; if it has already arisen we must check and calm it, and if we cannot do this either, at least we should keep our tongue from abuse, so that our passions may be like boys' quarrels. He relates what Archites said, and shows that David led the way in this matter, both in his actions and in his writings
95. Already before this he had said of his enemies: “For they cast iniquity upon me, and in their wrath they were grievous to me.” Let us hear what he said when overwhelmed in wrath: “Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will flee away and be at rest.” They kept provoking him to anger, but he sought quietness.