1 Kings 22:17
And the king said to the messengers that stood about him: Turn, and kill the priests of the Lord, for their hand is with David, because they knew that he was fled, and they told it not to me. And the king's servants would not put forth their hands against the priests of the Lord.
Open 1 Kings 22:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et ait rex emissariis qui circumstabant eum : Convertimini, et interficite sacerdotes Domini, nam manus eorum cum David est : scientes quod fugisset, et non indicaverunt mihi. Noluerunt autem servi regis extendere manus suas in sacerdotes Domini.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῖς παρατρέχουσιν τοῖς ἐφεστηκόσιν πρὸς αὐτόν Προσαγάγετε καὶ θανατοῦτε τοὺς ἱερεῖς τοῦ κυρίου, ὅτι ἡ χεὶρ αὐτῶν μετὰ Δαυείδ, καὶ ὅτι ἔγνωσαν ὅτι φεύγει αὐτὸς καὶ οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψαν τὸ ὠτίον μου· καὶ οὐκ ἐβουλήθησαν οἱ παῖδες τοῦ βασιλέως ἐπενεγκεῖν τὰς χεῖρας αὐτῶν ἁμαρτῆσαι εἰς τοὺς ἱερεῖς Κυρίου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֣אמֶר הַמֶּ֡לֶךְ לָרָצִים֩ הַנִּצָּבִ֨ים עָלָ֜יו סֹ֥בּוּ וְהָמִ֣יתוּ כֹּהֲנֵ֣י יְהוָ֗ה כִּ֤י גַם יָדָם֙ עִם דָּוִ֔ד וְכִ֤י יָֽדְעוּ֙ כִּֽי בֹרֵ֣חַ ה֔וּא וְלֹ֥א גָל֖וּ אֶת אזנו וְלֹֽא אָב֞וּ עַבְדֵ֤י הַמֶּ֨לֶךְ֙ לִשְׁלֹ֣חַ אֶת יָדָ֔ם לִפְגֹ֖עַ בְּכֹהֲנֵ֥י יְהוָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Messengers. Hebrew, "runners." These officers remained at court and were people of great account, (Calmet) like the king's guards, 2 Kings xv. 1., and 3 Kings i. 5. (Haydock)
Lord, out of reverence, and being convinced of their innocence. (Menochius)
The obedience which we owe to superiors is subordinate to that which we must always shew towards God and justice. (Calmet)
Saul unjustly condemned them as the abettors of his competitor. (Worthington)
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 Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating
9. I refer to these passages, not to convict the evangelists of falsification, a charge worthy only of impious men like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian, but to bring home to my critics their own want of knowledge, and to gain from them such consideration that they may concede to me in the case of a simple letter what, whether they like it or not, they will have to concede to the Apostles in the Holy Scriptures. Mark, the disciple of Peter, begins his gospel thus: “The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, as it is written in the prophet Isaiah: Behold I send my messenger before thy face which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” This quotation is made up from two prophets, Malachi that is to say and Isaiah. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
8. I say nothing of her journey through Cœle-Syria and Phœnicia (for it is not my purpose to give you a complete itinerary of her wanderings); I shall only name such places as are mentioned in the sacred books. After leaving the Roman colony of Berytus and the ancient city of Zidon she entered Elijah’s town on the shore at Zarephath and therein adored her Lord and Saviour. Next passing over the sands of Tyre on which Paul had once knelt she came to Acco or, as it is now called, Ptolemais, rode over the plains of Megiddo which had once witnessed the slaying of Josiah, and entered the land of the Philistines. Here she could not fail to admire the ruins of Dor, once a most powerful city; and Strato’s Tower, which though at one time insignificant was rebuilt by Herod king of Judæa and named Cæsarea in honour of Cæsar Augustus. …
St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XXI. Esther in danger of her life followed the grace of virtue; nay, even a heathen king did so, when death was threatened to a man most friendly to him. For friendship must ever be combined with virtue, as the examples of Jonathan and Ahimelech show
124. For that commendable friendship which maintains virtue is to be preferred most certainly to wealth, or honours, or power. It is not wont to be preferred to virtue indeed, but to follow after it. So it was with Jonathan, who for his affection’s sake avoided not his father’s displeasure nor the danger to his own safety. So, too, it was with Ahimelech, who, to preserve the duties of hospitality, thought he must endure death rather than betray his friend when fleeing.