Wisdom 19:17
For while the elements are changed in themselves, as in an instrument the sound of the quality is changed, yet all keep their sound: which may clearly be perceived by the very sight.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- In se enim elementa dum convertuntur, sicut in organo qualitatis sonus immutatur, et omnia suum sonum custodiunt : unde æstimari ex ipso visu certo potest.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from Wisdom 19:18
- δι᾽ ἑαυτῶν γὰρ τὰ στοιχεῖα μεθαρμοζόμενα, ὥσπερ ἐν ψαλτηρίῳ φθόγγοι τοῦ ῥυθμοῦ τὸ ὄνομα διαλλάσσουσιν, πάντοτε μένοντα ἤχῳ, ὅπερ ἐστὶν εἰκάσαι ἐκ τῆς τῶν γεγονότων ὄψεως ἀκριβῶς.
Haydock's commentary
Changed. The meaning is, that whatever changes God wrought in the elements by miracles in favour of his people, they still kept their harmony by obeying his will. (Challoner)
He answers the objection of philosophers, who argued against the possibility of miracles, as being against the established laws of nature. But they induce no more confusion than the various strings of a harp, when they are touched with skill, though they have each their respective name and sound. The ancients frequently compared the harmony of the universe to a musical instrument. See plut.[Plutarch?] Macrobius, som. ii.
Sight. Septuagint add, "of what happened" (Haydock) in those miraculous changes.
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.