Psalms 76:17
The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee: and they were afraid, and the depths were troubled.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Viderunt te aquæ, Deus ; viderunt te aquæ, et timuerunt : et turbatæ sunt abyssi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- εἴδοσάν σε ὕδατα, ὁ θεός, εἴδοσάν σε ὕδατα καὶ ἐφοβήθησαν, καὶ ἐταράχθησαν ἄβυσσοι·
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 77:17
- רָ֘א֤וּךָ מַּ֨יִם אֱֽלֹהִ֗ים רָא֣וּךָ מַּ֣יִם יָחִ֑ילוּ אַ֝֗ף יִרְגְּז֥וּ תְהֹמֽוֹת
Haydock's commentary
Afraid. St. Jerome, "in labour." (Haydock)
Troubled. The dry land appearing, to let the Israelites pass. (Berthier) (Psalm cxiii. 3.)
St. Jerome and the Jews understand this of the storm of Sinai. But most people suppose that the catastrophe at the Red Sea is described, when Moses insinuates, that a dreadful tempest overwhelmed the Egyptians, as it is here specified. See Josephus, [Antiquities?] ii. 7. (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 Hippolytus The Discourse on the Holy Theophany
2. Nor is this the only thing that proves the dignity of the water. But there is also that which is more honourable than all, the fact that Christ, the Maker of all, came down as the rain, and was known as a spring, and diffused Himself as a river, and was baptized in the Jordan. For you have just heard how Jesus came to John, and was baptized by him in the Jordan. Oh things strange beyond compare! How should the boundless River that makes glad the city of God have been dipped in a little water! The illimitable Spring that bears life to all men, and has no end, was covered by poor and temporary waters! He who is present everywhere, and absent nowhere, who is incomprehensible to angels and invisible to men, comes to the baptism according to His own good pleasure. When you hear these things, beloved, take them not as if spoken literally, but accept them as presented in a figure. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVII
17. And he continueth how? “The waters have seen Thee, O God, and they have feared and the abysses have been troubled” ( ver. 16 ). What are the waters? The peoples. What are these waters hath been asked in the Apocalypse, the answer was, the peoples. There we find most clearly waters put by a figure for peoples. But above he had said, “Thou hast made known in the peoples Thy virtue.” With reason therefore, “the waters have seen Thee, and they have feared.” They have been changed because they have feared. What are the abysses? The depths of waters. What man among the peoples is not troubled, when the conscience is smitten? Thou seekest the depth of the sea, what is deeper than human conscience? That is the depth which was troubled, when God redeemed with His arm His people. In what manner were the abysses troubled? When all men poured forth their consciences in confession.