The interpretation timeline

Ps 77:70

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

From the early Church Fathers to now.

2 Patristic · 1 Jewish

Ps 77:70 · Douay-Rheims
“And he chose his servant David, and took him from the hocks of sheep: he brought him from following the ewes great with young,”
Patristic before A.D. 750
430
A.D.
Augustine of Hippo Patristic
A.D. 354–430
“Lastly there follows, "and He built like as of unicorns His sanctification" [Psalm 78:70]: or, as some interpreters have made thereof a new word, "His sanctifying." The unicorns are rightly understood to be those, whose firm hope is uplifted unto that one thing, concerning which another Psalm says, "One thing I have sought of the Lord, this I will require." But the sanctifying of God, according to the Apostle Peter, is understood to be a holy people and a royal priesthood. [1 Peter 2:9] But that which follows, "in the land which He founded for everlasting:" which the Greek copies have εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα, whether it be called by us "for everlasting," or "for an age," is at the pleasure of the Latin translators; forasmuch as it does signify either: and therefore the latter is found in some Latin copies, the former in others. Some also have it in the plural, that is, "for ages:" which in the Greek copies which we have had we have not found. But which of the faithful would doubt, that the Church, even though, some going, others coming, she does pass out of this life in mortal manner, is yet founded for everlasting?”
Source
523
A.D.
Philoxenus of Mabbug Patristic
c. A.D. 450–523
“David sheweth in a psalm that he was chosen from a station which taught simplicity, for he was chosen from following the sheep, even as he himself confesseth and calleth to mind his election in one of his psalms, saying, "He chose David His servant, and took him from following a flock of sheep, and from after the ewes that gave suck."”
Source
582 years pass — nothing from this stretch is hosted yet
Scholastic c. 1100 – 1500
1105
A.D.
Rashi Jewish
1040–1105
“and took him from the sheepcotes Heb. ממכלאתצאן, from the stalls of the sheep, as (Hab. 3: 16): “The flock will be cut off from the fold (ממכלה).””
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.