Psalms 9:21
Appoint, O Lord, a lawgiver over them: that the Gentiles may know themselves to be but men.
Open Psalms 9:21 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Constitue, Domine, legislatorem super eos, ut sciant gentes quoniam homines sunt.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- κατάστησον, Κύριε, νομοθέτην ἐπ᾽ αὐτούς, γνώτωσαν ἔθνη ὅτι οἱ ἄνθρωποί εἰσιν. διάψαλμα.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שִׁ֘יתָ֤ה יְהוָ֨ה מוֹרָ֗ה לָ֫הֶ֥ם יֵדְע֥וּ גוֹיִ֑ם אֱנ֖וֹשׁ הֵ֣מָּה סֶּֽלָה
Haydock's commentary
Lawgiver. Hebrew mora. (Haydock)
Septuagint intimate one who rigorously enforces his laws. (Menochius)
Symmachus, "a law." Hebrew, "instruction." (Calmet)
Houbigant, "fear." St. Jerome, "terror: let the nations know that they are men always." Sela is thus frequently explained as a part of the sentence by St. Jerome, though neglected by others. (Haydock)
It is no proof that the psalm ends here; but serves to excite attention. (Worthington)
The Gentiles lived without law, like beasts, except that their conscience sometimes admonished them of their duty, Romans ii. 14. (Haydock)
Whether a person can ever silence it entirely, is a very serious and terrible question. The great ones stand in need of being admonished frequently of their frail condition. (Berthier)
When Pausanias, king of Sparta, asked Simonides to give his some important lesson, he replied, "Remember that thou art a man." Whoever reflects on this, will beware never to yield to sentiments of pride. The Fathers understand this lawgiver to be Jesus; or Antichrist, whom the wicked have deserved to have set over them. (Theodoret; St. Athanasius, &c.) (Calmet)
Those who will not believe in Christ, will give credit to Antichrist. (St. Augustine) (2 Thessalonians ii.)
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 IX
19. “Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail” ( ver. 19 ). The future judgment is prayed for: but before it come, “Let the heathen,” saith he, “be judged in Thy sight:” that is, in secret; which is called in God’s sight, with the knowledge of a few holy and righteous ones. “Place a lawgiver over them, O Lord.” ( ver. 20 ). He seems to me to point out Antichrist: of whom the Apostle says, “When the man of sin shall be revealed.” “Let the heathen know that they are men.” That they who will be set free by the Son of God, and belong to the Son of Man, and be sons of men, that is, new men, may serve man, that is, the old man the sinner, “for that they are men.”
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm X
9. But how shall he decline, and fall? “For he hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten; He turneth away His face, that He see not unto the end” ( ver. 11 ). This is declining, and the most wretched fall, while the mind of a man prospers as it were in its iniquities, and thinks that it is spared; when it is being blinded, and kept for an extreme and timely vengeance: of which the Psalmist now speaks: “Arise, O Lord God, let Thine hand be exalted” ( ver. 12 ): that is, let Thy power be made manifest. Now he had said above, “Arise, O Lord, let not man prevail, let the heathen be judged in Thy sight:” that is, in secret, where God alone seeth. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm X
14. “To judge for the orphan and the humble” ( ver. 18 ): that is, not for him who is conformed to this world, nor for the proud. For it is one thing to judge the orphan, another to judge for the orphan. He judges the orphan even, who condemns him; but he judges for the orphan, who delivers sentence for him. “That man add not further to magnify himself upon earth.” For they are men, of whom it was said, “Place a lawgiver over them, O Lord: let the heathen know that they are men.” But he too, who in this same passage is understood to be placed over them, will be man, of whom it is now said, “That man add not further to magnify himself upon earth:” namely, when the Son of Man shall come to judge for the orphan, who hath put off from himself the old man, and thus, as it were, buried his father.