Many there be who say of my soul, There is no help for him in God. Selah.
All Commentaries on Psalms 3:2 Go To Psalms 3
George Leo Haydock
AD 1849
God. His case is desperate. (Worthington)
He must therefore be a criminal. This is the usual judgment of the world, though very false, as we have seen in the person of Job; for temporal punishments are frequently an effect of the divine clemency. Semei upbraided David on this occasion, as the Jews did Christ, 2 Kings xvi. 7., and Matthew xxvii. 42. At the end of this verse, Hebrew adds, Selah, (Calmet) sle and Septuagint Dias alma, (Haydock) a word which is not much better understood. Houbigant therefore informs us that he has omitted it entirely, as the Vulgate seems to have done, except Psalm lxi. 8., where it is rendered, in æternum, "for ever "(Berthier) as St. Jerome expresses it semper, in his Hebrew version. It would perhaps be as well to leave the original term. (Haydock)
It occurs seventy-one times in the psalms, and thrice in Habacuc. Some think it is a sign to raise the voice, or to pause, (Berthier) at the end of the lesson, before the psalter was divided. None, except Eusebius, asserts that it was inserted by the original authors, and it seems now to be useless. (Calmet, Dis.)
