2 Kings 7:18
And David went in, and sat before the Lord, and said: Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that thou hast brought me thus far?
Open 2 Kings 7:18 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ingressus est autem rex David, et sedit coram Domino, et dixit : Quis ego sum, Domine Deus, et quæ domus mea, quia adduxisti me hucusque ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ εἰσῆλθεν ὁ βασιλεὺς Δαυεὶδ καὶ ἐκάθισεν ἐνώπιον Κυρίου, καὶ εἶπεν Τίς εἰμι ἐγώ, κύριέ μου Κύριε, καὶ τίς ὁ οἶκός μου, ὅτι ἠγάπηκάς με ἕως τούτων;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּבֹא֙ הַמֶּ֣לֶךְ דָּוִ֔ד וַיֵּ֖שֶׁב לִפְנֵ֣י יְהוָ֑ה וַיֹּ֗אמֶר מִ֣י אָנֹכִ֞י אֲדֹנָ֤י יְהוִה֙ וּמִ֣י בֵיתִ֔י כִּ֥י הֲבִיאֹתַ֖נִי עַד הֲלֹֽם
Haydock's commentary
Lord. "More in soul, than by this posture of the body, remaining quiet in meditation and prayer." (Cajetan)
Vatable says only kings were allowed to pray sitting, (Sa; Menochius) and they must be of the house of Juda. (Maimonides)
They say the priests always stood in the temple. But Josephus mentions seats of lead for them. (Jewish Wars vii. 11.) The Hebrew expression may denote no more, than that David continued for a long time in fervent prayer; Josephus says, prostrate on the ground before the ark. It is not so much the posture of the body as the fervour of the soul, which God regards. See St. Augustine, ad Simp. ii. q. 4.) Pythagoras ordered his disciples to pray sitting; and Homer represents Thetis in that attitude. (Calmet)
Far, in power and glory. (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 Ignatius of Antioch Epistle to the Philadelphians: Shorter, Chapter IV. Have but one Eucharist,
I have confidence of you in the Lord, that ye will be of no other mind. Wherefore I write boldly to your love, which is worthy of God, and exhort you to have but one faith, and one [kind of] preaching, and one Eucharist. For there is one flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ; and His blood which was shed for us is one; one loaf also is broken to all [the communicants], and one cup is distributed among them all: there is but one altar for the whole Church, and one bishop, with the presbytery and deacons, my fellow-servants. …