Psalms 57
Old Testament · Brenton Septuagint with Greek parallel
Psalms chapter 57 is given here in full, verse by verse, in Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), with the Greek text of the Septuagint set beneath each verse. The text follows the Septuagint tradition received throughout the Orthodox Church.
10 patristic excerpts are attached to this chapter, from Saint Augustine of Hippo. The translator's notes for this chapter (2) follow the text.
Psalms 57
1(58) For the end. Destroy not: by David, for a memorial.Εἰς τὸ τέλος, μὴ διαφθείρῃς, τῷ Δαυὶδ εἰς στηλογραφίαν.
2If you do indeed speak righteousness, then do you judge rightly, you sons of men.Εἰ ἀληθῶς ἄρα δικαιοσύνην λαλεῖτε, εὐθεῖα κρίνετε οἱ υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων.
3For you work iniquities in your hearts in the earth: your hands plot unrighteousness.Καὶ γὰρ ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνομίας ἐργάζεσθε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἀδικίαν αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν συμπλέκουσιν.
4Sinners have gone astray from the womb: they go astray from the belly: they speak lies.Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας, ἐπλανήθησαν ἀπὸ γαστρὸς, ἐλάλησαν ψευδῆ.
5Their venom is like that of a serpent; as that of a deaf asp, and that stops her ears;Θυμὸς αὐτοῖς κατὰ τὴν ὁμοίωσιν τοῦ ὄφεως, ὡσεὶ ἀσπίδος κωφῆς, καὶ βυούσης τὰ ὦτα αὐτῆς,
6which will not hear the voice of charmers, nor heed the * charm prepared skillfully by the wise.ἥτις οὐκ εἰσακούσεται φωνὴν ἐπᾳδόντων, φαρμάκου τε φαρμακευομένου παρὰ σοφοῦ.
7God has crushed their teeth in their mouth: God has broken the cheek-teeth of the lions.Ὁ Θεὸς συνέτριψε τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν, τὰς μύλας τῶν λεόντων συνέθλασεν ὁ Κύριος.
8They shall utterly pass away like water running through: he shall bend his bow till they shall fail.Ἐξουδενωθήσονται ὡς ὕδωρ διαπορευόμενον, ἐντενεῖ τὸ τόξον αὐτοῦ ἕως οὗ ἀσθενήσουσιν.
9They shall be destroyed as melted wax: the fire has fallen and they have not seen the sun.Ὡσεὶ κηρὸς ὁ τακεῖς ἀνταναιρεθήσονται, ἔπεσε πῦρ, καὶ οὐκ εἶδον τὸν ἥλιον.
10Before your thorns feel the white thorn, he shall swallow you up as living, as in his wrath.Πρὸ τοῦ συνιέναι τὰς ἀκάνθας ὑμῶν τὴν ῥάμνον, ὡσεὶ ζῶντας ὡσεὶ ἐν ὀργῇ καταπίεται ὑμᾶς.
11The righteous shall rejoice when he sees the vengeance of the ungodly: he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner.Εὐφρανθήσεται δίκαιος, ὅταν ἴδῃ ἐκδίκησιν ἀσεβῶν, τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ νίψεται ἐν τῷ αἵματι τοῦ ἁμαρτωλοῦ.
12And a man shall say, Verily then there is † a reward for the righteous: verily there is a God that judges them in the earth.Καὶ ἐρεῖ ἄνθρωπος, εἰ ἄρα ἐστὶ καρπὸς τῷ δικαίῳ, ἄρα ἐστὶν ὁ Θεὸς κρίνων αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ γῇ.
Translator's Notes
These notes come from the printed edition of Sir Lancelot Brenton's classic English translation of the Septuagint (LXX), and record where the Greek differs from the English rendering or admits more than one reading.
- v. 5*Gr. poison.
- v. 11†Gr. fruit.
The Fathers on Psalms 57
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this chapter. Each excerpt below is drawn from the full text held in the Fathers Library; follow the link on any entry to read the whole work.
On Psalms 57:2Saint Augustine of Hippo1. The words which we have sung must be rather hearkened to by us, than proclaimed. For to all men as it were in an assemblage of mankind, the Truth crieth, “If truly indeed justice ye speak, judge right things, ye sons of men” (ver. 1). For to what unjust man is it not an easy thing to speak justice? or what man if questioned about justice, when he hath not a cause, would not easily answer what is just? Inasmuch…
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On Psalms 57:3Saint Augustine of Hippo3. But now ye do what? Why these things to you do I speak? “Because in heart iniquities ye work on earth” (ver. 2). Iniquities perchance in heart alone? Hear what followeth: both their heart hands do follow, and their heart hands do serve, the thing is thought of, and it is done; or else it is not done, not because we would not, but because we could not, Whatever thou willest and canst not, for done God doth…
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On Psalms 57:4Saint Augustine of Hippo4. “Alienated are sinners from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly, they have spoken false things” (ver. 3). And when iniquity they speak, false things they speak; because deceitful is iniquity: and when justice they speak, false things they speak; because one thing with mouth they profess, another thing in heart they conceal. “Alienated are sinners from the womb.” What is this? Let us search more…
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On Psalms 57:5–6Saint Augustine of Hippo6. “Indignation to them after the similitude of a serpent” (ver. 4). A great thing ye are to hear. “Indignation to them after the similitude of a serpent.” As if we had said, What is that which thou hast said? there followeth, “As if of a deaf asp.” Whence deaf? “And closing its ears.” Therefore deaf, because it closeth its ears. “And closing its ears.” “Which will not hearken to the voice of men charming, and of…
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On Psalms 57:7Saint Augustine of Hippo8. “God hath broken utterly the teeth of them in their own mouth” (ver. 6). Of whom? Of them to whom indignation is as the similitude of a serpent, and of an asp closing up its ears, so that it heareth not the voice of men charming, and of medicine medicated by the wise man. The Lord hath done to them what? “Hath broken utterly the teeth of them in their own mouth.” It hath been done, this at first hath been…
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On Psalms 57:8Saint Augustine of Hippo11. “They shall be despised like water running down” (ver. 7). Be not terrified, brethren, by certain streams, which are called torrents: with winter waters they are filled up; do not fear: after a little it passeth by, that water runneth down; for a time it roareth, soon it will subside: they cannot hold long. Many heresies now are utterly dead: they have run in their channels as much as they were able, have run…
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On Psalms 57:9Saint Augustine of Hippo12. “Like wax melted they shall be taken away” (ver. 8). For thou wast about to say, all men are not so made weak, like myself, in order that they may believe: many men do persevere in their evil, and in their malice. And of the same fear thou nothing: “Like wax melted they shall be taken away.” Against thee they shall not stand, they shall not continue: with a sort of fire of their own lusts they shall perish.…
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On Psalms 57:10Saint Augustine of Hippo14. “Before that the bramble bringeth forth your thorns: as though living, as though in anger, it shall drink them up” (ver. 9). What is the bramble? Of prickly plants it is a kind, upon which there are said to be certain of the closest thorns. At first it is a herb; and while it is a herb, soft and fair it is: but thereon there are nevertheless thorns to come forth. Now therefore sins are pleasant, and as it…
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On Psalms 57:11Saint Augustine of Hippo15. As yet the punishments of the lower places have not come, as yet fire everlasting hath not come: let him that is growing in God compare himself now with an ungodly man, a blind heart with an enlightened heart: compare ye two men, one seeing and one not seeing in the flesh. And what so great thing is vision of the flesh? Did Tobias by any means have fleshly eyes? His own son had, and he had not; and the way of…
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On Psalms 57:11Open Psalms 57 in the interactive reader Switch translations, hear the chapter read aloud, tap any verse for its patristic commentary, and study the Greek word by word.Saint Augustine of Hippo16. “And a man shall say, If therefore there is fruit to a just man” (ver. 10). Behold, before that there cometh that which is promised, before that there is given life everlasting, before that ungodly men are cast forth into fire everlasting, here in this life there is fruit to the just man. What fruit? “In hope rejoicing, in tribulation enduring.” What fruit to the just man? “We glory in tribulations, knowing…
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