Psalms 8:2
O Lord our Lord, how admirable is thy name in the whole earth! For thy magnificence is elevated above the heavens.
Open Psalms 8:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Domine, Dominus noster, quam admirabile est nomen tuum in universa terra ! quoniam elevata est magnificentia tua super cælos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Κύριε ὁ κύριος ἡμῶν, ὡς θαυμαστὸν τὸ ὄνομά σου ἐν πάσῃ τῇ γῇ· ὅτι ἐπήρθη ἡ μεγαλοπρεπία σου ὑπεράνω τῶν οὐρανῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יְהוָ֤ה אֲדֹנֵ֗ינוּ מָֽה אַדִּ֣יר שִׁ֭מְךָ בְּכָל הָאָ֑רֶץ אֲשֶׁ֥ר תְּנָ֥ה ה֝וֹדְךָ֗ עַל הַשָּׁמָֽיִם
Haydock's commentary
O Lord, (Jehova) our Lord, (Adonenu). (St. Jerome) Dominator noster, "our Ruler." (Haydock)
God is Lord of all by creation, and still more of those who believe. (Worthington)
Adonai is pronounced by the Jews, and sometimes applied to men. But they have lost the pronunciation of the first term, which some read Jehovah, (Calmet) or Jaho, (St. Jerome) Jave, &c. (Haydock)
Admirable. It expresses all that He is. (Exodus iii. 14.; Berthier) Essence itself. (Haydock)
Earth. This was verified after the incarnation; (St. Chrysostom) for before, the Gentiles knew it not, and the Jews caused it to be blasphemed. (Berthier)
Now all confess the glory of Jesus Christ, the master-piece of God. (Calmet)
Heavens; which are nothing in comparison, (Menochius) for he hath created them. (Worthington) (Habacuc iii. 3.)
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 VIII
4. Accordingly it is said, “O Lord, our Lord, how admirable is Thy Name in all the earth!” ( ver. 1 ). I ask, how is His Name wonderful in all the earth? The answer is, “For Thy glory has been raised above the heavens.” So that the meaning is this, O Lord, who art our Lord, how do all that inhabit the earth admire Thee! for Thy glory hath been raised from earthly humiliation above the heavens. For hence it appeared who Thou wast that descendedst, when it was by some seen, and by the rest believed, whither it was that Thou ascendedst.
St Gregory Nazianzen The Second Theological Oration
III. What is this that has happened to me, O friends, and initiates, and fellow-lovers of the truth? I was running to lay hold on God, and thus I went up into the Mount, and drew aside the curtain of the Cloud, and entered away from matter and material things, and as far as I could I withdrew within myself. And then when I looked up, I scarce saw the back parts of God; although I was sheltered by the Rock, the Word that was made flesh for us. And when I looked a little closer, I saw, not the First and unmingled Nature, known to Itself, to the Trinity, I mean; not That which abideth within the first veil, and is hidden by the Cherubim; but only that Nature, which at last even reaches to us. And that is, as far as I can learn, the Majesty, or as holy David calls it, the Glory which is manifested among the creatures, which It has produced and governs. …