2 Machabees 2:27
And as to ourselves indeed, in undertaking this work of abridging, we have taken in hand no easy task, yea rather a business full of watching and sweat.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et nobis quidem ipsis, qui hoc opus breviandi causa suscepimus, non facilem laborem, immo vero negotium plenum vigiliarum et sudoris assumpsimus.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from 2 Machabees 2:26
- καὶ ἡμῖν μὲν τοῖς τὴν κακοπάθειαν ἐπιδεδιγμένοις τῆς ἐπιτομῆς οὐ ῥᾴδιον, ἱδρῶτος δὲ καὶ ἀγρυπνίας τὸ πρᾶγμα·
Haydock's commentary
No easy task, &c. The spirit of God, that assists the sacred penman, does not exempt them from labour in seeking out the matter which they are to treat of, and the order and manner in which they are to deliver it. So St. Luke wrote the gospel, having diligently attained to all things, Luke i. 3. (Challoner)
This evangelist had to inquire of others. (Worthington)
Inspiration preserves from all danger of mistake. When something future is revealed, there is less difficulty, as God must then dictate the very words. Hence Jeremias wrote with the utmost ease, as Baruch testified, Jeremias xxxvi. 18, 32. (Haydock)
The prophets had, therefore, only to write or speak from the mouth of God. Others were excited by him to treat of history, &c., and were preserved from error, but not from labour. (Bellarmine, Verb. i. 15.)
In vain then do our adversaries attempt to prove that this book is not inspired. (Menochius)
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.