2 Kings 7:2
He said to Nathan the prophet: Dost thou see that I dwell in a house of cedar, and the ark of God is lodged within skins?
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- dixit ad Nathan prophetam : Videsne quod ego habitem in domo cedrina, et arca Dei posita sit in medio pellium ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν ὁ βασιλεὺς πρὸς Ναθὰν τὸν προφήτην Ἰδοὺ δὴ ἐγὼ κατοικῶ ἐν οἴκῳ κεδρίνῳ, καὶ ἡ κιβωτὸς τοῦ θεοῦ κάθηται ἐν μέσῳ τῆς σκηνῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֤אמֶר הַמֶּ֨לֶךְ֙ אֶל נָתָ֣ן הַנָּבִ֔יא רְאֵ֣ה נָ֔א אָנֹכִ֥י יוֹשֵׁ֖ב בְּבֵ֣ית אֲרָזִ֑ים וַֽאֲרוֹן֙ הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים יֹשֵׁ֖ב בְּת֥וֹךְ הַיְרִיעָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Nathan. An admirable courtier, (Grotius) and a great saint, Ecclesiasticus xlvii. He was neither too rough, nor too complaisant.
Cedar. This was the most esteemed species of wood. The palace of the Persian kings, at Ecbatana, was chiefly built of it, and of cypress wood. (Polyb. x.)
Houses were not there built in such a solid manner, as they are in colder climates. They consisted mostly of wood.
Skins. The outer veils of the tabernacle were made of skins, as others generally were. (Calmet)
Hebrew and Chaldean, "of curtains."
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
Origen Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapter XXII
The Jews therefore said, “Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou raise it up in three days?” How the Jews said that the temple had been forty-six years building, we cannot tell, if we adhere to the history. For it is written in the third Book of Kings, that they prepared the stones and the wood three years, and in the fourth year, in the second month, when Solomon was king over Israel, the king commanded, and they brought great precious stones for the foundation of the house, and unhewn stones. And the sons of Solomon and the sons of Hiram hewed the stones and laid them in the fourth year, and they founded the house of the Lord in the month Nisan and the second month: in the tenth year in the month Baal, which was the eighth month, the house was finished according to the whole count and the whole plan of it. …
St Augustine City of God, To Whose Person the Entreaty for the Promises is to Be Understood to Belong, When He Says in the Psalm, ‘Where are Thine Ancient Compassions, Lord?’ Etc
But the rest of this psalm runs thus: “Where are Thine ancient compassions, Lord, which Thou swarest unto David in Thy truth? Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, which I have borne in my bosom of many nations; wherewith Thine enemies have reproached, O Lord, wherewith they have reproached the change of Thy Christ.” Now it may with very good reason be asked whether this is spoken in the person of those Israelites who desired that the promise made to David might be fulfilled to them; or rather of the Christians, who are Israelites not after the flesh but after the Spirit. …
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).