1 Kings 14:45
And the people said to Saul: Shall Jonathan then die, who hath wrought this great salvation in Israel? This must not be. As the Lord liveth, there shall not one hair of his head fall to the ground, for he hath wrought with God this day. So the people delivered Jonathan, that he should not die.
Open 1 Kings 14:45 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixitque populus ad Saul : Ergone Jonathas morietur, qui fecit salutem hanc magnam in Israël ? hoc nefas est : vivit Dominus, si ceciderit capillus de capite ejus in terram, quia cum Deo operatus est hodie. Liberavit ergo populus Jonathan, ut non moreretur.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν ὁ λαὸς πρὸς Σαούλ Εἰ σήμερον θανατωθήσεται ὁ ποιήσας τὴν σωτηρίαν τὴν μεγάλην ταύτην ἐν Ἰσραήλ; ζῇ Κύριος, εἰ πεσεῖται τριχὸς τῆς κεφαλῆς αὐτοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν· ὅτι ὁ λαὸς τοῦ θεοῦ ἐποίησεν τὴν ἡμέραν ταύτην. καὶ προσηύξατο ὁ λαὸς περὶ Ἰωναθὰν ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, καὶ οὐκ ἀπέθανεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֨אמֶר הָעָ֜ם אֶל שָׁא֗וּל הֲֽיוֹנָתָ֤ן יָמוּת֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר עָ֠שָׂה הַיְשׁוּעָ֨ה הַגְּדוֹלָ֣ה הַזֹּאת֮ בְּיִשְׂרָאֵל֒ חָלִ֗ילָה חַי יְהוָה֙ אִם יִפֹּ֞ל מִשַּׂעֲרַ֤ת רֹאשׁוֹ֙ אַ֔רְצָה כִּֽי עִם אֱלֹהִ֥ים עָשָׂ֖ה הַיּ֣וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וַיִּפְדּ֥וּ הָעָ֛ם אֶת יוֹנָתָ֖ן וְלֹא מֵֽת
Haydock's commentary
The people, directed probably by the high priest, who pronounced the oath null. (Salien)
Ground. He shall not be hurt. (Menochius)
With God. He has been visibly "the minister of God's mercy." (Septuagint)
Die. They obtained his pardon. They ought not to have permitted the king's oath to be put in execution, as it was so horribly unjust. (Grotius, Jur. ii. 13, 6.) (Calmet)
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
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Trace God's Government in History and in His Precepts, and You Will Find It Full of His Goodness
These considerations show that the entire order of God as Judge is an operative one, and (that I may express myself in worthier words) protective of His Catholic and supreme goodness, which, removed as it is from judiciary emotions, and pure in its own condition, the Marcionites refuse to acknowledge to be in one and the same Deity, “raining on the just and on the unjust, and making His sun to rise on the evil and on the good,”, a bounty which no other god at all exercises. It is true that Marcion has been bold enough to erase from the gospel this testimony of Christ to the Creator; but yet the world itself is inscribed with the goodness of its Maker , and the inscription is read by each man’s conscience. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch, Homily XIV
12. Saul then having made this declaration, the people were more afraid than before, and all were in a state of great trembling and terror. But the devil rejoiced, at having rendered them all thus anxious. There was no one, we are told, of all the people, who answered. “And Saul said, Ye will be in bondage, and I, and Jonathan my son, will be in bondage.” But what he means is to this effect; “You are aiming at nothing else, than to deliver yourselves to your enemies, and to become slaves instead of free men; whilst you provoke God against you, in not delivering up the guilty person.” Observe also another contradiction produced by the oath. It had been fitting, if he wished to find the author of this guilt, to have made no such threat, nor to have bound himself to vengeance by an oath; that becoming less afraid, they might more readily bring the offender to light. …