1 Kings 21:13
And he changed his countenance before them, and slipt down between their hands: and he stumbled against the doors of the gate, and his spittle ran down upon his beard.
Open 1 Kings 21:13 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et immutavit os suum coram eis, et collabebatur inter manus eorum : et impingebat in ostia portæ, defluebantque salivæ ejus in barbam.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἠλλοίωσεν τὸ πρόσωπον αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ καὶ προσεποιήσατο ἐν τῇ ἡμέρᾳ ἐκείνῃ, καὶ ἐτυμπάνιζεν ἐπὶ ταῖς θύραις τῆς πόλεως καὶ παρεφέρετο ἐν ταῖς χερσὶν αὐτοῦ καὶ ἔπιπτεν ἐπὶ τὰς θύρας τῆς πύλης, καὶ τὰ σίελα αὐτοῦ κατέρρει ἐπὶ τὸν πώγωνα αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from 1 Kings 21:14
- וַיְשַׁנּ֤וֹ אֶת טַעְמוֹ֙ בְּעֵ֣ינֵיהֶ֔ם וַיִּתְהֹלֵ֖ל בְּיָדָ֑ם ויתו עַל דַּלְת֣וֹת הַשַּׁ֔עַר וַיּ֥וֹרֶד רִיר֖וֹ אֶל זְקָנֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Countenance. Hebrew, "sentiment, (Calmet) or, behaviour." (Haydock)
Chaldean, "reason." He no longer acted as a prudent man, but like a fool.
Down; not fainting, (Calmet) but like one in an epileptic fit. (Haydock)
Hebrew, "he feigned himself mad." Chaldean, "stupid."
Stumbled. Hebrew, "wrote, or made figures upon." Septuagint, "beat the drum upon the gates of the city, and he was carried about, or acted the fool, in his hands, (parephereto en tais chersin, autou: Amama would have, auton, their) and he fell against the doors of the gate," &c. They seem to give a double translation. St. Augustine says, "we cannot understand how David could be carried in his own hands. But we understand how it was verified in Christ. For Christ was carried in his own hands at his last supper, when he gave, or commending, his own body, he said, This, &c., for he then carried his own body in his own hands." (In Psalm xxxiii. conc. i.) Ferebat enim illud corpus in manibus suis. Amama may laugh at St. Augustine's ignorance of Hebrew, but the holy doctor was at least a sincere Catholic. (Haydock)
Beard. We find some wretched objects doing the same, Mark ix. 17. The spittle was deemed infectious. Et illic isti qui sputatur, morbus interdum venit. (Plautus in Captivis.)
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 Augustine Against Lying, Section 24
24. Touching Jacob, however, that which he did at his mother’s bidding, so as to seem to deceive his father, if with diligence and in faith it be attended to, is no lie, but a mystery. The which if we shall call lies, all parables also, and figures designed for the signifying of any things soever, which are not to be taken according to their proper meaning, but in them is one thing to be understood from another, shall be said to be lies: which be far from us altogether. For he who thinks this, may also in regard of tropical expressions of which there are so many, bring in upon all of them this calumny; so that even metaphor, as it is called, that is, the usurped transferring of any word from its proper object to an object not proper, may at this rate be called a lie. …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm XXXIV
3. But who is it that blesseth the Lord at all times, except the humble in heart. For very humility taught our Lord in His Own Body and Blood: because when He commendeth His Own Body and Blood, He commendeth His Humility, in that which is written in this history, in that seeming madness of David, which we have passed by, “And his spittle ran down over his beard.” When the Apostle was read, Ye heard the same spittle, but running down over the beard. One saith perhaps, What spittle have we heard? Was it not read but now, where the Apostle saith, “The Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom?” But now it was read, “But we preach,” saith he, “Christ crucified” (for then He drummed), “unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness; but unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the Power of God, and the Wisdom of God. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XLIII. On temperance and its chief parts, especially tranquillity of mind and moderation, care for what is virtuous, and reflection on what is seemly
223. David danced before the ark of the Lord. Samuel did not dance; yet David was not blamed, while the other was praised. David changed his countenance before the king, whose name was Achish. If he had done this without any fear of being recognized, he would certainly not have escaped the charge of levity. Saul also, surrounded by the company of prophets, himself prophesied. Yet of him alone, as though he were unworthy, was it said: “Is Saul also among the prophets?”
St John Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII, Chapter XVIII. An objection that only those men employed lies with impunity, who lived under the law
Germanus : It is no wonder that these schemes were properly employed in the Old Testament, and that some holy men laudably or at any rate venially told lies, as we see that many worse things were permitted to them owing to the rude character of the times. For why should we wonder that when the blessed David was fleeing from Saul, in answer to the inquiry of Abimelech the priest who said: “Why art thou alone, and is no man with thee?” he replied as follows: “The king hath commanded me a business, and said, Let no man know the thing for which thou art sent by me, for I have appointed my servants to such and such a place;” and again: “Hast thou here at hand a spear or a sword, for I brought not my own sword nor my own weapon with me, for the king’s business required haste;” or this, when he was brought to Achish king of Gath, and feigned himself mad and frantic, “and changed his countenance …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).