1 Kings 10:23
And they ran and fetched him thence: and he stood in the midst of the people, and he was higher than any of the people from the shoulders and upward.
Open 1 Kings 10:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cucurrerunt itaque et tulerunt eum inde : stetitque in medio populi, et altior fuit universo populo ab humero et sursum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἔδραμεν καὶ λαμβάνει αὐτὸν ἐκεῖθεν, καὶ κατέστησεν ἐν μέσῳ τοῦ λαοῦ· καὶ ὑψώθη ὑπὲρ πάντα τὸν λαὸν ὑπερωμίαν καὶ ἐπάνω.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּרֻ֨צוּ֙ וַיִּקָּחֻ֣הוּ מִשָּׁ֔ם וַיִּתְיַצֵּ֖ב בְּת֣וֹךְ הָעָ֑ם וַיִּגְבַּהּ֙ מִכָּל הָעָ֔ם מִשִּׁכְמ֖וֹ וָמָֽעְלָה
Haydock's commentary
Upwards. God condescended to gratify the desires of the people, who chiefly regarded the stature and corporal qualifications of their king. "Many nations are accustomed to look with veneration on a majestic person, and think none are capable of great exploits except those whom nature has made very handsome." (Curtius vi.) See chap. ix. 2. More civilized nations rather consider the qualities of the mind. Alexander, Agesilaus, &c., were not of a majestic stature.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St John Chrysostom Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood, Book II
2. Will you, then, still contend that you were not rightly deceived, when you are about to superintend the things which belong to God, and are doing that which when Peter did the Lord said he should be able to surpass the rest of the apostles, for His words were, “Peter, lovest thou me more than these?” Yet He might have said to him, “If thou lovest me practise fasting, sleeping on the ground, and prolonged vigils, defend the wronged, be as a father to orphans, and supply the place of a husband to their mother.” But as a matter of fact, setting aside all these things, what does He say? “Tend my sheep.” For those things which I have already mentioned might easily be performed by many even of those who are under authority, women as well as men; but when one is required to preside over the Church, and to be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before th …