Psalms 88:47
How long, O Lord, turnest thou away unto the end? shall thy anger burn like fire?
Open Psalms 88:47 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Usquequo, Domine, avertis in finem ? exardescet sicut ignis ira tua ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἕως πότε, Κύριε, ἀποστρέψεις εἰς τέλος; ἐκκαυθήσεται ὡς πῦρ ἡ ὀργή σου;
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Psalms 89:47
- עַד מָ֣ה יְ֭הוָה תִּסָּתֵ֣ר לָנֶ֑צַח תִּבְעַ֖ר כְּמוֹ אֵ֣שׁ חֲמָתֶֽךָ
Haydock's commentary
How long. Here the third part, or the prayer of the psalmist, begins. (Calmet)
Away. Another interrogation might then commence, "shall it be unto the end?" (Haydock)
In this prayer he foretells that God will regard our weakness, and preserve his Church. (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
St Augustine City of God, Of the Substance of the People of God, Which Through His Assumption of Flesh is in Christ, Who Alone Had Power to Deliver His Own Soul from Hell
But after having prophesied these things, the prophet betakes him to praying to God; yet even the very prayer is prophecy: “How long, Lord, dost Thou turn away in the end?” “Thy face” is understood, as it is elsewhere said, “How long dost Thou turn away Thy face from me?” For therefore some copies have here not “dost,” but “wilt Thou turn away;” although it could be understood, “Thou turnest away Thy mercy, which Thou didst promise to David.” But when he says, “in the end,” what does it mean, except even to the end? By which end is to be understood the last time, when even that nation is to believe in Christ Jesus, before which end what He has just sorrowfully bewailed must come to pass. On account of which it is also added here, “Thy wrath shall burn like fire. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm LXXXIX
35. Let us therefore see whether God fulfils His promises. After these stern penalties which have been recorded as having been inflicted upon this people and kingdom, that God might not be supposed to have fulfilled His promises in it, and so not to grant another kingdom in Christ, of which kingdom there shall be no end; the Prophet addresses Him in these words, “Lord, how long wilt Thou hide Thyself unto the end?” ( ver. 46 ). For possibly it was not from them and to the end; because “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel shall be saved.” But in the mean while “shall Thy wrath burn like fire.”
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter XIV. The Son is of one substance with the Father
120. Nor has it escaped us, that in another place also, setting forth the frailties of man’s estate, in order to show that He had taken upon Himself the infirmity of the flesh, and the affections of our minds, the Lord said, by the mouth of His prophet: “Remember, O Lord, what My substance is,” because it was the Son of God speaking in the nature of human frailty.