Psalms 77:18
And they tempted God in their hearts, by asking meat for their desires.
Open Psalms 77:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et tentaverunt Deum in cordibus suis, ut peterent escas animabus suis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐξεπείρασαν τὸν θεὸν ἐν ταῖς καρδίαις αὐτῶν, τοῦ αἰτῆσαι βρώματα ταῖς ψυχαῖς αὐτῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 78:18
- וַיְנַסּוּ אֵ֥ל בִּלְבָבָ֑ם לִֽשְׁאָל אֹ֥כֶל לְנַפְשָֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Desires. Literally, "souls," as if they were dying for hunger, though they had plenty of manna, Numbers xi. 4. (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 Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVIII
13. “And they tempted God in their hearts, in order that they might seek morsels for their souls” ( ver. 18 ). It is one thing to ask in believing, another thing in tempting. Lastly there followeth, “And they slandered God, and said, Shall God be able to prepare a table in the desert?” ( ver. 19 ). “For He smote the rock, and the waters flowed, and torrents gushed forth: will He be able to give bread also, or to prepare a table for His people?” ( ver. 20 ). Not believing therefore, they sought morsels for their souls. Not so the Apostle James doth enjoin a morsel to be asked for the mind, but doth admonish that it be sought by believers, not by such as tempt and slander God. …
St Ambrose On the Holy Spirit, Chapter VIII. The aforesaid unity is proved hereby, that as the Father is said to be grieved and tempted, so too the Son. The Son was also tempted in the wilderness, where a figure of the cross was set up in the brazen serpent: but the Apostle says that the Spirit also was there tempted. St. Ambrose infers from this that the Israelites were guided into the promised land by the same Spirit, and that His will and power are one with those of the Father and the Son
48. And we may behold this unity also in other passages of the Scriptures. For whereas Ezekiel says to the people of the Jews: “And thou hast grieved Me in all these things, saith the Lord;” Paul says to the new people in his Epistle: “Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, in Whom ye were sealed.” Again, whereas Isaiah says of the Jews themselves: “But they believed not, but grieved the Holy Spirit;” David says of God: “They grieved the Most High in the desert, and tempted God in their hearts.”
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).