Psalms 77:8
That they may not become like their fathers, a perverse and exasperating generation. A generation that set not their heart aright: and whose spirit was not faithful to God.
Open Psalms 77:8 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- ne fiant, sicut patres eorum, generatio prava et exasperans ; generatio quæ non direxit cor suum, et non est creditus cum Deo spiritus ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἵνα μὴ γένωνται ὡς οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν γενεὰ σκολιὰ καὶ παραπικραίνουσα, γενεὰ ἥτις οὐ κατηύθυνεν ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτῆς, καὶ οὐκ ἐπιστώθη μετὰ τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ πνεῦμα αὐτῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 78:8
- וְלֹ֤א יִהְי֨וּ כַּאֲבוֹתָ֗ם דּוֹר֮ סוֹרֵ֪ר וּמֹ֫רֶ֥ה דּ֭וֹר לֹא הֵכִ֣ין לִבּ֑וֹ וְלֹא נֶאֶמְנָ֖ה אֶת אֵ֣ל רוּחֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Fathers. Some were virtuous, like Moses, Josue, Samuel, &c., ver. 3., and 5. (Berthier)
But the majority proved faithless. (Haydock)
To God. Or did not confide in him, or know that without God's grace, no good can be done. (St. Augustine) (Berthier)
Abraham instructed his house, (Genesis xviii.) and David his subjects, that they might avoid bad example. The same advice regards Christians, 1 Corinthians x. (Worthington)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter IX. That It is the Prerogative of the Same Power to Be Beneficent and to Punish Justly. Also the Manner of the Instruction of the Logos
Further, His righteousness cried, “If ye come straight to me, I also will come straight to you but if ye walk crooked, I also will walk crooked, saith the Lord of hosts;” meaning by the crooked ways the chastisements of sinners. For the straight and natural way which is indicated by the Iota of the name of Jesus is His goodness, which is firm and sure towards those who have believed at hearing: “When I called, ye obeyed not, saith the Lord; but set at nought my counsels, and heeded not my reproofs.” Thus the Lord’s reproof is most beneficial. David also says of them, “A perverse and provoking race; a race which set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful with God: they kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law.”
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVIII
7. “How great things,” he saith, “He hath commanded our fathers, to make the same known to their sons?” ( ver. 5 ). “That another generation may know, sons who shall be born and shall rise up, and they may tell to their sons” ( ver. 6 ). “That they may put their hope in God, and may not forget the works of God, and may seek out His commandments” ( ver. 7 ). “That they may not become, like their fathers, a crooked and embittering generation: a generation that hath not guided their heart, and the spirit thereof hath not been trusted with God” ( ver. 8 ). …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXVIII
9. But what that is which he saith, “they have been turned back in the day of war,” the following words do teach, wherein he hath most clearly explained this: “they have not kept,” he saith, “the testament of God, and in His law they would not walk” ( ver. 10 ). Behold what is, “they have been turned back in the day of war:” they have not kept the testament of God. When they were bending and shooting bows, they did also utter the words of most forward promise, saying, “Whatsoever things the Lord our God hath spoken we will do, and we will hear.” “They have been turned back in the day of war:” because the promise of obedience not hearing but temptation doth prove. …