The interpretation timeline

Ps 39:15

How this passage has been read — the sources, oldest to newest.

From the early Church Fathers to now.

1 Patristic · 1 Jewish · 1 Catholic

Ps 39:15 · Douay-Rheims
“Let them be confounded and ashamed together, that seek after my soul to take it away. Let them be turned backward and be ashamed that desire evils to me.”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“"Let them speedily bear away their own confusion, that say unto me, Well done! Well done!" [Psalm 40:15]. They praise you without reason. "A great man! A good man! A man of education and of learning; but why a Christian?" They praise those things in you which you should wish not to be praised; they find fault with that at which you rejoice. But if perhaps you say, "What is it you praise in me, O man? That I am a virtuous man? A just man? If you think this, Christ made me this; praise Him." But the other says, "Be it far from you. Do yourself no wrong! You yourself made yourself such." "Let them be confounded who say unto me, Well done! Well done!" And what follows?”
Source
675 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“to destroy it Heb. לספותה, to destroy it, as we translate (in Deut. 2:14): “until the entire generation...had vanished, עד דסף כל-דרא.”
169 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
1274
A.D.
Thomas Aquinas Catholic
1225–1274
“Against three enemies he asks for swiftness, because delay is usually harmful: Eccl. 8: "Because sentence against evil works is not quickly pronounced, the sons of men commit evil without any fear." And therefore he says, "Let them speedily bear their confusion," that is, let them quickly be confounded, because these are they who, applauding, say to me "Well done, well done," that is, they rejoice falsely, with regard to flatterers. Or, "Well done," that is, they mock or insult. Jerome has it according to these words: "Ha!" Thus the Jews mocked Christ, Mt. 27.”
Source
Modern · 1953 →

The in-app commentary runs from the Fathers to the early-modern record, then stops — that's where the public-domain sources end, not where the reading does. For the modern reading, follow the sources directly.