Psalms 59
Old Testament · Brenton Septuagint with Greek parallel
Psalms chapter 59 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.
12 patristic excerpts are attached to this chapter, from Saint Augustine of Hippo. The translator's notes for this chapter (2) follow the text.
Psalms 59
1(60) For the end, for them that shall yet be changed; for an inscription by David for instruction, when he had burned Mesopotamia of Syria, and Syria Sobal, and Joab had returned and struck in the valley of salt twelve thousand. O God, you have rejected and destroyed us; you have been angry, yet have pitied us.Εἰς τὸ τέλος, τοῖς ἀλλοιωθησομένοις ἔτι, εἰς στηλογραφίαν τῷ Δαυὶδ εἰς διδαχὴν,
2You have shaken the earth, and troubled it; heal its breaches, for it has been shaken.ὁπότε ἐνεπύρισε τὴν Μεσοποταμίαν Συρίας, καὶ τὴν Συρίαν Σοβὰλ, καὶ ἐπέστρεψεν Ἰωὰβ, καὶ ἐπάταξε τὴν φάραγγα τῶν ἁλῶν, δώδεκα χιλιάδας.
3You have shown your people hard things: you have made us drink the wine of astonishment.Ὁ Θεὸς ἀπώσω ἡμᾶς καὶ καθεῖλες ἡμᾶς, ὠργίσθης καὶ ᾠκτείρησας ἡμᾶς.
4You have given a token to them that fear you, that they might flee from the bow. Pause.Συνέσεισας τὴν γῆν καὶ συνετάραξας αὐτὴν, ἴασαι τὰ συντρίμματα αὐτῆς, ὅτι ἐσαλεύθη.
5That your beloved ones may be delivered; save with your right hand, and hear me.Ἔδειξας τῷ λαῷ σου σκληρὰ, ἐπότισας ἡμᾶς οἶνον κατανύξεως.
6God has spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, and divide Sicima, and measure out the valley of tents.Ἔδωκας τοῖς φοβουμένοις σε σημείωσιν, τοῦ φυγεῖν ἀπὸ προσώπου τόξον· διάψαλμα.
7Galaad is mine, and Manasse is mine; and Ephraim is the * strength of my head;Ὅπως ἂν ῥυσθῶσιν οἱ ἀγαπητοί σου, σῶσον τῇ δεξιᾷ σου καὶ ἐπάκουσόν μου.
8Judas is my king; Moab is the caldron of my hope; over Idumea will I stretch out my shoe; the Philistines have been subjected to me.Ὁ Θεὸς ἐλάλησεν ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ αὐτοῦ, ἀγαλλιάσομαι καὶ διαμεριῶ Σίκιμα, καὶ τὴν κοιλάδα τῶν σκηνῶν διαμετρήσω.
9Who will lead me into the fortified city? who will guide me as far a Idumea?Ἐμός ἐστι Γαλαὰδ, καὶ ἐμός ἐστι Μανασσῆ, καὶ Ἐφραὶμ κραταίωσις τῆς κεφαλῆς μου· Ἰούδας βασιλεύς μου,
10Will not you, O God, who have cast us off? and will not you, O God, go forth with our forces?Μωὰβ λέβης τῆς ἐλπίδος μου, ἐπὶ τὴν Ἰδουμαίαν ἐκτενῶ τὸ ὑπόδημά μου, ἐμοὶ ἀλλόφυλοι ὑπετάγησαν.
11Give us help from trouble: for vain is the deliverance of man.Τίς ἀπάξει με εἰς πόλιν περιοχῆς; τίς ὁδηγήσει με ἕως τῆς Ἰδουμαίας;
12In God will we † do valiantly; and he shall bring to nothing them that harass us.Οὐχὶ σὺ ὁ Θεὸς, ὁ ἀπωσάμενος ἡμᾶς; καὶ οὐκ ἐξελεύσῃ, ὁ Θεὸς ἐν ταῖς δυνάμεσιν ἡμῶν;
13Δὸς ἡμῖν βοήθειαν ἐκ θλίψεως, καὶ ματαία σωτηρία ἀνθρώπου.
14Ἐν τῷ Θεῷ ποιήσομεν δύναμιν, καὶ αὐτὸς ἐξουδενώσει τοὺς θλίβοντας ἡμᾶς.
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. 7*Or, strengthening.
- v. 12†Gr. work power.
The Fathers on Psalms 59
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 59:1Saint Augustine of Hippo3. “God, Thou hast driven us back, and hast destroyed us” (ver. 1). Is that David speaking that smote, that burned up, that defeated, and not they to whom He did these things, that is to say, their being smitten and driven back, that were evil men, and again their being made alive and returning in order that they might be good men? That destruction indeed that David made, strong of hand, our Christ, whose figure…
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On Psalms 59:2Saint Augustine of Hippo4. “Thou hast moved the earth, and hast troubled it” (ver. 2). How hath the earth been troubled? In the conscience of sinners. Whither go we? Whither flee we, when this sword hath been brandished, “Repent, for near hath drawn the kingdom of Heaven”? “Heal the crushings thereof, for moved it hath been.” Unworthy it is to be healed, if moved it hath not been: but thou speakest, preachest, threatenest us with God,…
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On Psalms 59:3Saint Augustine of Hippo5. The first labour is, that thou shouldest be displeasing to thyself, that sins thou shouldest battle out, that thou shouldest be changed into something better: the second labour, in return for thy having been changed, is to bear the tribulations and temptations of this world, and amid them to hold on even unto the end. Of these things therefore when he was speaking, while pointing out such things, he addeth…
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On Psalms 59:4Saint Augustine of Hippo6. Wherefore this? “Thou hast given to men fearing Thee, a sign that they should flee from the face of the bow” (ver. 4). Through tribulations temporal, he saith, Thou hast signified to Thine own to flee from the wrath of fire everlasting. For, saith the Apostle Peter, “Time it is that Judgment begin with the House of God.” And exhorting the Martyrs to endurance, when the world should rage, when slaughters should…
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On Psalms 59:5Saint Augustine of Hippo7. “That Thy beloved may be delivered: save me with Thy right hand, and hearken unto me” (ver. 5). With Thy right hand save me, Lord: so save me as that at the right hand I may stand. Not any safety temporal I require, in this matter Thy Will be done. For a time what is good for us we are utterly ignorant: for “what we should pray for as we ought we know not:” but “save me with Thy right hand,” so that even if in…
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On Psalms 59:6Saint Augustine of Hippo8. “God hath spoken in His Holy One” (ver. 6).…In what Holy One of His? “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself.” In that Holy One, of whom elsewhere ye have heard, “O God, in the Holy One is Thy way.” “I will rejoice and will divide Sichima.…and the valley of tabernacles I will measure out.” Sichima is interpreted shoulders. But according to history, Jacob returning from Laban his father-in-law with…
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On Psalms 59:7Saint Augustine of Hippo9. “Mine is Galaad” (ver. 7). These names are read in the Scriptures of God. Galaad hath the voice of an interpretation of its own and of a great Mystery: for it is interpreted “the heap of testimony.” How great a heap of testimony in the Martyrs? “Mine is Galaad,” mine is a heap of testimony, mine are the true Martyrs.…Then meanly esteemed was the Church among men, then reproach on Her a Widow was being thrown,…
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On Psalms 59:7Saint Augustine of Hippo10. “Juda is my king: Moab the pot of my hope” (ver. 7). What Juda? He that is of the tribe of Juda. What Juda, but He to whom Jacob himself said, “Juda, thy brethren shall praise thee”? What therefore should I fear, when Juda my king saith, “Fear not them that kill the body”? “Moab the pot of my hope.” Wherefore “pot”? Because tribulation. Wherefore “of my hope”? Because there hath gone before Juda my king.…Moab…
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On Psalms 59:8Saint Augustine of Hippo11. “Into Idumæa I will stretch out my shoe” (ver. 8). The Church speaketh, “I will come through even unto Idumæa.” Let tribulations rage, let the world boil with offences, even unto those very persons that lead an earthly life (for Idumæa is interpreted earthly), even unto those same, “even unto Idumæa, I will stretch out my shoe.” Of what thing the shoe except of the Gospel? “How beautiful the feet of them that…
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On Psalms 59:9Saint Augustine of Hippo12. “Who will lead Me down into the city of standing round?” (ver. 9). What is the city of standing round? If ye remember already, I have made mention thereof in another Psalm, wherein hath been said, “And they shall go around the city.” For the city of standing round is the compassing around of the Gentiles, which compassing around of the Gentiles in the middle thereof had the one nation of the Jews, worshipping…
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On Psalms 59:10Saint Augustine of Hippo13. “Wilt not Thou, O God, that hast driven us back? And wilt not Thou, O God, march forth in our powers?” (ver. 10). Wilt not Thou lead us down, that hast driven us back? But wherefore “hast driven us back”? Because Thou hast destroyed us. Wherefore hast destroyed us? Because angry Thou hast been, and hast had pity on us. Thou therefore wilt lead down, that hast driven back; Thou, O God, that wilt not march…
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On Psalms 59:11–12Open Psalms 59 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 Hippo14. Thou therefore, O God, that wilt not march forth in our powers, “Give to us aid from tribulation, and vain is the safety of man” (ver. 11). Go now they that salt have not, and desire safety temporal for their friends, which is empty oldness. “Give to us aid:” from thence whence Thou wast supposed to forsake, thence succour. “In God we will do valour, and Himself to nothing shall bring down our enemies” (ver.…
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