Psalms 7:17
His sorrow shall be turned on his own head: and his iniquity shall come down upon his crown.
Open Psalms 7:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Convertetur dolor ejus in caput ejus, et in verticem ipsius iniquitas ejus descendet.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐπιστρέψει ὁ πόνος αὐτοῦ εἰς κεφαλὴν αὐτοῦ, καὶ ἐπὶ κορυφὴν αὐτοῦ ἡ ἀδικία αὐτοῦ καταβήσεται.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יָשׁ֣וּב עֲמָל֣וֹ בְרֹאשׁ֑וֹ וְעַ֥ל קָ֝דְקֳד֗וֹ חֲמָס֥וֹ יֵרֵֽד
Haydock's commentary
Sorrow. The evil which he designed for me (Menochius) will fall on him, like an arrow shot upwards. (Calmet)
Crown. Protestants, "pate." (Haydock)
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 V
10. “O Lord, lead me forth in Thy justice because of mine enemies” ( ver. 8 ). He has here sufficiently plainly declared that he is on his onward road, that is, in progress toward perfection, not yet in perfection itself, when he desires eagerly that he may be led forth. But, “in Thy justice,” not in that which seems so to men. For to return evil for evil seems justice: but it is not His justice of whom it is said, “He maketh His sun to rise on the good and on the evil:” for even when God punishes sinners, He does not inflict His evil on them, but leaves them to their own evil. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm VII
18. “His toil shall be turned on his head, and his iniquity shall descend on his pate” ( ver. 16 ). For he had no mind to escape sin: but was brought under sin as a slave, so to say, as the Lord saith, “Whosoever sinneth is a slave.” His iniquity then will be upon him, when he is subject to his iniquity; for he could not say to the Lord, what the innocent and upright say, “My glory, and the lifter up of my head.” He then will be in such wise below, as that his iniquity may be above, and descend on him; for that it weigheth him down and burdens him, and suffers him not to fly back to the rest of the saints. This occurs, when in an ill regulated man reason is a slave, and lust hath dominion.
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXVIII
7. “For mine iniquities have lifted up my head; and are like a heavy burden too heavy for me to bear” ( ver. 4 ). Here too he has placed the cause first, and the effect afterwards. What consequence followed, and from what cause, he has told us. “Mine iniquities have lift up mine head.” For no one is proud but the unrighteous man, whose head is lifted up. He is “lifted up,” whose “head is lifted up on high” against God. You heard when the lesson of the Book of Ecclesiasticus was read: “The beginning of pride is when a man departeth from God.” He who was the first to refuse to listen to the Commandment, “his head iniquity lifted up” against God. And because his iniquities have lifted up his head, what hath God done unto him? They are “like a heavy burden, too heavy for me to bear”! It is the part of levity to lift up the head, just as if he who lifts up his head had nothing to carry. …
Eusebius The Church History of Eusebius, The Victory of the God-Beloved Emperors
6. In regard to him one might say, “he digged a pit and opened it and fell into the hole which he had made; his labor shall turn upon his own head, and his unrighteousness shall fall upon his own crown.”