Psalms 65:12
Thou hast set men over our heads. We have passed through fire and water, and thou hast brought us out into a refreshment.
Open Psalms 65:12 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- imposuisti homines super capita nostra. Transivimus per ignem et aquam, et eduxisti nos in refrigerium.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐπεβίβασας ἀνθρώπους ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἡμῶν· διήλθομεν διὰ πυρὸς καὶ ὕδατος, καὶ ἐξήγαγες ἡμᾶς εἰς ἀναψυχήν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 66:12
- הִרְכַּ֥בְתָּ אֱנ֗וֹשׁ לְרֹ֫אשֵׁ֥נוּ בָּֽאנוּ בָאֵ֥שׁ וּבַמַּ֑יִם וַ֝תּוֹצִיאֵ֗נוּ לָֽרְוָיָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Fire and water, which the Egyptians considered as the emblems of purity, (Horus. xli.) and which here denote the greatest tribulations. (Calmet)
The just still overcome by God's grace, (Worthington) notwithstanding all the efforts of tyrants who may be set over them. (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 Cyril of Jerusalem On the Mysteries. V: On the Sacred Liturgy and Communion
17. And lead us not into temptation, O Lord . Is this then what the Lord teaches us to pray, that we may not be tempted at all? How then is it said elsewhere, “a man untempted, is a man unproved;” and again, My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations ? But does perchance the entering into temptation mean the being overwhelmed by the temptation? For temptation is, as it were, like a winter torrent difficult to cross. Those therefore who are not overwhelmed in temptations, pass through, shewing themselves excellent swimmers, and not being swept away by them at all; while those who are not such, enter into them and are overwhelmed. As for example, Judas having entered into the temptation of the love of money, swam not through it, but was overwhelmed and was strangled both in body and spirit. …
St Gregory Nazianzen The Last Farewell in the Presence of the One Hundred and Fifty Bishops
3. To speak in a more feeling strain, trusting in Him Who then forsook me, as in a Father, “Abraham has been ignorant of us, Israel has acknowledged us not, but Thou art our Father, and unto Thee do we look; beside Thee we know none else, we make mention of Thy name.” Therefore, says Jeremiah, I will plead with Thee, I will reason the cause with Thee. We are become as at the beginning, when Thou barest not rule over us, and Thou hast forgotten Thy holy covenant, and shut up Thy mercies from us. …
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter II. How the occasions of these faults, being found in everybody, are ignored by everybody; and how we need the Lord's help to make them plain
And of these passions as the occasions are recognized by everybody as soon as they are laid open by the teaching of the elders, so before they are revealed, although we are all overcome by them, and they exist in every one, yet nobody knows of them. But we trust that we shall be able in some measure to explain them, if by your prayers that word of the Lord, which was announced by Isaiah, may apply to us also, “I will go before thee, and bring low the mighty ones of the land, I will break the gates of brass, and cut asunder the iron bars, and I will open to thee concealed treasures and hidden secrets”, so that the word of the Lord may go before us also, and first may bring low the mighty ones of our land, i.e. …