1 Kings 2:36
And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall remain in thy house, shall come that he may be prayed for, and shall offer a piece of silver, and a roll of bread, and shall say: Put me, I beseech thee, to somewhat of the priestly office, that I may eat a morsel of bread.
Open 1 Kings 2:36 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Futurum est autem, ut quicumque remanserit in domo tua, veniat ut oretur pro eo, et offerat nummum argenteum, et tortam panis, dicatque : Dimitte me, obsecro, ad unam partem sacerdotalem, ut comedam buccellam panis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἔσται ὁ περισσεύων ἐν οἴκῳ ἥξει προσκυνεῖν αὐτῷ ὀβολοῦ ἀργυρίου λέγων Παράριψόν με ἐπὶ μίαν τῶν ἱερατειῶν σου φαγεῖν ἄρτον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְהָיָ֗ה כָּל הַנּוֹתָר֙ בְּבֵ֣יתְךָ֔ יָבוֹא֙ לְהִשְׁתַּחֲוֺ֣ת ל֔וֹ לַאֲג֥וֹרַת כֶּ֖סֶף וְכִכַּר לָ֑חֶם וְאָמַ֗ר סְפָחֵ֥נִי נָ֛א אֶל אַחַ֥ת הַכְּהֻנּ֖וֹת לֶאֱכֹ֥ל פַּת לָֽחֶם
Haydock's commentary
Bread; like the poorest sort of people. (Menochius)
Being degraded, they shall ask the other priests to offer sacrifice for them. Hebrew, "shall bend before him for a piece of silver, and for a morsel of bread." He shall humbly intreat to be employed as a priest, in order to get a livelihood.
The piece of silver. Hebrew agorath, probably denotes the gerah, the smallest coin, or what was given for a day's wages. Agor means to hire, in Chaldean, Syriac, &c. Hence the Greek, agorazo, "I purchase."
Office. The priests served in their turns; (1 Paralipomenon xxiv.) so that the descendants of Heli must have been entitled to a subsistence. But whether God punished them, by requiring that they should ask the high priest for this, as for a favour, or this was required of all the inferior priests before they could be employed, or whether, in fine, the descendants of Abiathar were reduced to the condition of Levites, or wholly degraded, we know not. See 4 Kings xxiii. 9., and Ezechiel xliv. 10. (Calmet)
They may petition for a part of the victims which fell to the share of the priests, (Menochius) and might be eaten by any that was not defiled. (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
St Cyprian Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews, Testimony XVII
In the cixth Psalm: “Before the morning star I begat thee. The Lord hath sworn, and He will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedek.” Also in the first book of Kings, God says to the priest Eli: “And I will raise up to me a faithful priest, who shall do all things which are in my heart: and I will build him a sure house; and he shall pass in the presence of my anointed ones for all days. And it shall be, whosoever shall remain in thine house, shall come to worship for an obolus of money, and for one loaf of bread.”
St Augustine City of God, Of Those Things Which a Man of God Spake by the Spirit to Eli the Priest, Signifying that the Priesthood Which Had Been Appointed According to Aaron Was to Be Taken Away
But this is said more plainly by a man of God sent to Eli the priest himself, whose name indeed is not mentioned, but whose office and ministry show him to have been indubitably a prophet. For it is thus written: “And there came a man of God unto Eli, and said, Thus saith the Lord, I plainly revealed myself unto thy father’s house, when they were in the land of Egypt slaves in Pharaoh’s house; and I chose thy father’s house out of all the sceptres of Israel to fill the office of priest for me, to go up to my altar, to burn incense and wear the ephod; and I gave thy father’s house for food all the offerings made by fire of the children of Israel. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Laeta
6. We read of Eli the priest that he became displeasing to God on account of the sins of his children; and we are told that a man may not be made a bishop if his sons are loose and disorderly. On the other hand it is written of the woman that “she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with chastity.” If then parents are responsible for their children when these are of ripe age and independent; how much more must they be responsible for them when, still unweaned and weak, they cannot, in the Lord’s words, “discern between their right hand and their left:”, when, that is to say, they cannot yet distinguish good from evil? If you take precautions to save your daughter from the bite of a viper, why are you not equally careful to shield her from “the hammer of the whole earth”? to prevent her from drinking of the golden cup of Babylon? to keep her …