2 Kings 17:3
And I will bring back all the people, as if they were but one man: for thou seekest but one man: and all the people shall be in peace.
Open 2 Kings 17:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et reducam universum populum, quomodo unus homo reverti solet : unum enim virum tu quæris : et omnis populus erit in pace.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐπιστρέψω πάντα τὸν λαὸν πρὸς σέ, ὃν τρόπον ἐπιστρέφει ἡ νύμφη πρὸς τὸν ἄνδρα αὐτῆς· πλὴν ψυχὴν ἑνὸς ἀνδρὸς σὺ ζητεῖς, καὶ παντὶ τῷ λαῷ ἔσται ἐν εἰρήνῃ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְאָשִׁ֥יבָה כָל הָעָ֖ם אֵלֶ֑יךָ כְּשׁ֣וּב הַכֹּ֔ל הָאִישׁ֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר אַתָּ֣ה מְבַקֵּ֔שׁ כָּל הָעָ֖ם יִהְיֶ֥ה שָׁלֽוֹם
Haydock's commentary
One man. They will return with such unanimity, when their leader is cut off. (Menochius)
David was the one man whom his son desired to kill, as the latter was the only one whom David ordered to be spared, chap. xviii. 5. (Haydock)
Hebrew seems rather transposed: "I will bring back all the people to thee, as all the people, whom thou seekest, are returned; and all the people shall be in peace:" or, ... "when all those, whom thou desirest, shall be returned, &c. (Calmet)
Septuagint, "as a bride returns to her husband; only the soul of one thou seekest, and peace shall be to all the people." (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 John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians, Philippians 2:1-4
I will now, if you wish, give you examples of all these qualities. For these things which are contraries, seem in some way to be placed near together, as the tares to the wheat, and the thorns to the rose. But while babes might easily be deceived, they who are men in truth, and are skilled in spiritual husbandry, know how to separate what is really good from the bad. Let me then lay before you examples of these qualities from the Scriptures. What is flattery, and meanness, and adulation? Ziba flattered David out of season, and falsely slandered his master. ( 2 Sam. xvi. 1-3 .) Much more did Ahitophel flatter Absalom. ( 2 Sam. xvii. 1-4 .) But David was not so, but he was humble. For the deceitful are flatterers, as when they say, “O king, live for ever.” ( Dan. ii. 4 .) Again, what flatterers the magicians are.
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paula
4. Why should I not mourn, you say? Jacob put on sackcloth for Joseph, and when all his family gathered round him, refused to be comforted. “I will go down,” he said, “into the grave unto my son mourning.” David also mourned for Absalom, covering his face, and crying: “O my son, Absalom…my son, Absalom! Would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son!” Moses, too, and Aaron, and the rest of the saints were mourned for with a solemn mourning. The answer to your reasoning is simple. Jacob, it is true, mourned for Joseph, whom he fancied slain, and thought to meet only in the grave (his words were: “I will go down into the grave unto my son mourning”), but he only did so because Christ had not yet broken open the door of paradise, nor quenched with his blood the flaming sword and the whirling of the guardian cherubim. …