Psalms 57:8
They shall come to nothing, like water running down; he hath bent his bow till they be weakened.
Open Psalms 57:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ad nihilum devenient tamquam aqua decurrens ; intendit arcum suum donec infirmentur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐξουδενωθήσονται ὡς ὕδωρ διαπορευόμενον, ἐντενεῖ τὸ τόξον αὐτοῦ ἕως οὗ ἀσθενήσουσιν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 58:8
- יִמָּאֲס֣וּ כְמוֹ מַ֭יִם יִתְהַלְּכוּ לָ֑מוֹ יִדְרֹ֥ךְ חצו כְּמ֣וֹ יִתְמֹלָֽלוּ
The Fathers on this verse
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LVIII
11. “They shall be despised like water running down” ( ver. 7 ). Be not terrified, brethren, by certain streams, which are called torrents: with winter waters they are filled up; do not fear: after a little it passeth by, that water runneth down; for a time it roareth, soon it will subside: they cannot hold long. Many heresies now are utterly dead: they have run in their channels as much as they were able, have run down, dried are the channels, scarce of them the memory is found, or that they have been. “They shall be despised like water running down.” But not they alone; the whole of this age for a time is roaring, and is seeking whom it may drag along. …
St Jerome Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus, The way of peace is through the wisdom taught in the Book of Proverbs, and through unity in the faith
Such are the lessons in which I have been trained and therefore I was unwilling to return bite for bite, and to attack you by way of retaliation; and I thought it better to exorcise the madness of one who was raving, and to pour in the antidote of a single book into his poisoned breast. But I fear I shall have no success, and that I shall be compelled to sing the song of David, and to take his words for my only consolation: