1 Kings 2:16
And he that sacrificed said to him: Let the fat first be burnt today according to the custom, and then take as much as thy soul desireth. But he answered and said to him: Not so: but thou shalt give it me now, or else I will take it by force.
Open 1 Kings 2:16 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dicebatque illi immolans : Incendatur primum juxta morem hodie adeps, et tolle tibi quantumcumque desiderat anima tua. Qui respondens aiebat ei : Nequaquam : nunc enim dabis, alioquin tollam vi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἔλεγεν ὁ ἀνὴρ ὁ θύων Θυμιαθήτω πρῶτον ὡς καθήκει τὸ στέαρ, καὶ λάβε σεαυτῷ ἐκ πάντων ὧν ἐπιθυμεῖ ἡ ψυχή σου. καὶ εἶπεν Οὐχί, ὅτι νῦν δώσεις· καὶ ἐὰν μή, λήμψομαι κραταιῶς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֨אמֶר אֵלָ֜יו הָאִ֗ישׁ קַטֵּ֨ר יַקְטִיר֤וּן כַּיּוֹם֙ הַחֵ֔לֶב וְקַ֨ח לְךָ֔ כַּאֲשֶׁ֥ר תְּאַוֶּ֖ה נַפְשֶׁ֑ךָ וְאָמַ֥ר לו כִּ֚י עַתָּ֣ה תִתֵּ֔ן וְאִם לֹ֖א לָקַ֥חְתִּי בְחָזְקָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Desireth. The Laic gives an example of moderation and zeal, to which the priest might well have paid some deference. The former is willing to abandon his goods, provided the honour of God be not neglected. (Haydock)
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 On Fasting, Chapter XVI
For even if He does prefer “the works of righteousness,” still not without a sacrifice, which is a soul afflicted with fasts. He, at all events, is the God to whom neither a People incontinent of appetite, nor a priest, nor a prophet, was pleasing. To this day the “monuments of concupiscence” remain, where the People, greedy of “flesh,” till, by devouring without digesting the quails, they brought on cholera, were buried. Eli breaks his neck before the temple doors, his sons fall in battle, his daughter-in-law expires in child-birth: for such was the blow which had been deserved at the hand of God by the shameless house, the defrauder of the fleshly sacrifices. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus
9. We have learned what we ought to be: let us now learn what priests ought not to be. Indulgence in wine is the fault of diners out and revellers. When the body is heated with drink it soon boils over with lust. Wine drinking means self-indulgence, self-indulgence means sensual gratification, sensual gratification means a breach of chastity. He that lives in pleasure is dead while he lives, and he that drinks himself drunk is not only dead but buried. One hour’s debauch makes Noah uncover his nakedness which through sixty years of sobriety he had kept covered. Lot in a fit of intoxication unwittingly adds incest to incontinence, and wine overcomes the man whom Sodom failed to conquer. A bishop that is a striker is condemned by Him who gave His back to the smiters, and when He was reviled reviled not again. “But moderate”; one good thing is set over against two evil things. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Sabinianus
10. But possibly you flatter yourself that since the bishop who has made you a deacon is a holy man, his merits will atone for your transgressions. I have already told you that the father is not punished for the son nor the son for the father. “The soul that sinneth it shall die.” Samuel too had sons who forsook the fear of the Lord and “turned aside after lucre” and iniquity. Eli also was a holy priest, but he had sons of whom we read in the Hebrew that they lay with the women that assembled at the door of the tabernacle of God, and that like you they shamelessly claimed for themselves the right to minister in His sanctuary. Wherefore the tabernacle itself was overthrown and the holy place made desolate by reason of the sins of those who were God’s priests. …