3 Kings 11:13
Neither will I take away the whole kingdom, but I will give one tribe to thy son for the sake of David my servant, and Jerusalem which I have chosen.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- nec totum regnum auferam, sed tribum unam dabo filio tuo propter David servum meum, et Jerusalem, quam elegi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- πλὴν ὅλην τὴν βασιλείαν οὐ μὴ λάβω· σκῆπτρον ἓν δώσω τῷ υἱῷ σου διὰ Δαυεὶδ τὸν δοῦλόν μου καὶ διὰ Ἰερουσαλὴμ τὴν πόλιν ἣν ἐξελεξάμην.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- רַ֤ק אֶת כָּל הַמַּמְלָכָה֙ לֹ֣א אֶקְרָ֔ע שֵׁ֥בֶט אֶחָ֖ד אֶתֵּ֣ן לִבְנֶ֑ךָ לְמַ֨עַן֙ דָּוִ֣ד עַבְדִּ֔י וּלְמַ֥עַן יְרוּשָׁלִַ֖ם אֲשֶׁ֥ר בָּחָֽרְתִּי
Haydock's commentary
One tribe. Besides that of Juda, his own native tribe. (Challoner)
That of Benjamin had been so reduced, that it scarcely deserved the name of a tribe. It was also invariably connected with the adjoining tribe of Juda; as many of the other tribes, after the captivities of Assyria and Babylon, went by the common title of Jews. (Tirinus)
The Levites, and many of the Israelites, came to inhabit in the land of Juda, for the sake of the true religion, chap. xii. 17., and 2 Paralipomenon xi. 13, 16. Jeroboam banished the tribe of Levi from his dominions, that he might more easily introduce a change of religion among his subjects. The two kingdoms were thus almost equal in strength. (Calmet)
Chosen for the abode of holiness, and the seat of government. (Salien)
One tribe....and Jerusalem; which latter may denote the tribe of Benjamin. (Worthington)
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 Augustine On the Catechising of the Uninstructed, Of Israel’s Bondage in Egypt, Their Deliverance, and Their Passage Through the Red Sea
36. “In this manner, then, through many varied signs of things to come, which it would be tedious to enumerate in complete detail, and which we now see in their fulfillment in the Church, that people were brought to the land of promise, in which they were to reign in a temporal and carnal way in accordance with their own longings: which earthly kingdom, nevertheless, sustained the image of a spiritual kingdom. There Jerusalem was founded, that most celebrated city of God, which, while in bondage, served as a sign of the free city, which is called the heavenly Jerusalem which latter term is a Hebrew word, and signifies by interpretation the ‘vision of peace.’ The citizens thereof are all sanctified men, who have been, who are, and who are yet to be; and all sanctified spirits, even as many as are obedient to God with pious devotion in the exalted regions of heaven, and imitate not the imp …
St John Chrysostom An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall, Letter II
2. For human nature is a slippery thing, quick to be cheated, but quick also to recover from deceit and as it speedily falls, so also does it readily rise. For even that blessed man, I mean David the chosen king and prophet, after he had accomplished many good deeds, betrayed himself to be a man, for once he fell in love with a strange woman, nor did he stop there but he committed adultery on account of his passion, and he committed murder on account of his adultery; but he did not try to inflict a third blow upon himself because he had already received two such heavy ones, but immediately hastened to the physician, and applied the remedies, fasting, tears, lamentation, constant prayer, frequent confession of the sin; and so by these means he propitiated God, insomuch that he was restored to his former position, insomuch that after adultery and murder the memory of the father was able to …