2 Kings 3:29
And may it come upon the head of Joab, and upon all his father's house: and let there not fail from the house of Joab one that hath an issue of seed, or that is a leper, or that holdeth the distaff, or that falleth by the sword, or that wanteth bread.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et veniat super caput Joab, et super omnem domum patris ejus : nec deficiat de domo Joab fluxum seminis sustinens, et leprosus, et tenens fusum, et cadens gladio, et indigens pane.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καταντησάτωσαν ἐπὶ κεφαλὴν Ἰωὰβ καὶ ἐπὶ πάντα τὸν οἶκον τοῦ πατρὸς αὐτοῦ, καὶ μὴ ἐκλίποι ἐκ τοῦ οἴκου Ἰωὰβ γονορρυὴς καὶ λεπρὸς καὶ κρατῶν σκυτάλης καὶ πίπτων ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ καὶ ἐλασσούμενος ἄρτοις.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יָחֻ֨לוּ֙ עַל רֹ֣אשׁ יוֹאָ֔ב וְאֶ֖ל כָּל בֵּ֣ית אָבִ֑יו וְֽאַל יִכָּרֵ֣ת מִבֵּ֣ית יוֹאָ֡ב זָ֠ב וּמְצֹרָ֞ע וּמַחֲזִ֥יק בַּפֶּ֛לֶךְ וְנֹפֵ֥ל בַּחֶ֖רֶב וַחֲסַר לָֽחֶם
Haydock's commentary
Issue. Such were looked upon as unclean, (Leviticus xv. 3,) and incapable of having children. Aquila translates zab, "blind." Septuagint, "afflicted with the gonorrhœa."
Distaff, like eunuchs. (Delrio, adag. 190.) (Claud in Eutrop.) Tu telas non tela pati, &c. Some translate a stick, with which the blind, lame and aged endeavour to walk. (Calmet)
Any of these conditions would be very mortifying to great warriors. (Haydock)
Bread. Hunger and famine were considered as a scourge of God, Psalm lviii. 7, 15., and cviii. 10. David is not moved with hatred, but foretells what will befall the posterity of these men, whose crime he abhors. (Calmet)
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, Matthew XII. 33
But who avenged himself justly, yet kindled innumerable ills, and pierced himself through with many calamities and sorrows? The captain of David’s host. For he both stirred up a grievous war, and suffered unnumbered evils; not one whereof would have happened, had he but known how to command himself.