3 Kings 19:12
And after the earthquake a fire: the Lord is not in the fire, and after the fire a whistling of a gentle air.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et post commotionem ignis : non in igne Dominus. Et post ignem sibilus auræ tenuis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ μετὰ τὸν συνσεισμὸν πῦρ, οὐκ ἐν τῷ πυρὶ Κύριος· καὶ μετὰ τὸ πῦρ φωνὴ αὔρας λεπτῆς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְאַחַ֤ר הָרַ֨עַשׁ֙ אֵ֔שׁ לֹ֥א בָאֵ֖שׁ יְהוָ֑ה וְאַחַ֣ר הָאֵ֔שׁ ק֖וֹל דְּמָמָ֥ה דַקָּֽה
Haydock's commentary
Air. Something similar happened at the giving of the law, and at the propagation of the gospel, Exodus xix. 9, 16., and Acts ii. 2. The Lord was pleased to shew his prophet the difference between the two laws: the one was full of terror, the other of mildness. (Grotius)
He insinuated likewise, that he could easily exterminate the offenders, but he chose to bear patiently with them; (Tirinus) and taught his prophet to moderate his zeal, and, after terrifying sinners, to being them to a sense of their duty by gentle means. (Sanctius) (Calmet)
"His spirit is most indulgent and mild." ....est teneræ serenitatis, apertus et simplex. (Tertullian, contra Marcion xxiii.)
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 Justin Martyr Hortatory Address to the Greeks, Chapter XXXI. Further proof of
For from what other source, if not from his reading the writings of the prophets, could Plato have derived the information he gives us, that Jupiter drives a winged chariot in heaven? For he knew this from the following expressions of the prophet about the cherubim: “And the glory of the Lord went out from the house and rested on the cherubim; and the cherubim lift up their wings, and the wheels beside them; and the glory of the Lord God of Israel was over them above.” And borrowing this idea, the magniloquent Plato shouts aloud with vast assurance, “The great Jove, indeed, driving his winged chariot in heaven.” For from what other source, if not from Moses and the prophets, did he learn this and so write? And whence did he receive the suggestion of his saying that God exists in a fiery substance? Was it not from the third book of the history of the Kings, where it is written, “The Lord …
St Irenaeus Against Heresies: Book IV, Chapter XX. That one God formed all
10. The prophets, therefore, did not openly behold the actual face of God, but [they saw] the dispensations and the mysteries through which man should afterwards see God. As was also said to Elias: “Thou shalt go forth tomorrow, and stand in the presence of the Lord ; and, behold, a wind great and strong, which shall rend the mountains, and break the rocks in pieces before the Lord . And the Lord [was] not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord [was] not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord [was] not in the fire; and after the fire a scarcely audible voice” ( vox auræ tenuis ). …
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, Impossible that Marcion's Christ Should Reprove the Faithless Generation. Such Loving Consideration for Infants as the True Christ Was Apt to Shew, Also Impossible for the Other. On the Three Different Characters Confronted and Instructed by Christ in Samaria
I take on myself the character of Israel. Let Marcion’s Christ stand forth, and exclaim, “O faithless generation! how long shall I be with you? how long shall I suffer you?” He will immediately have to submit to this remonstrance from me: “Whoever you are, O stranger, first tell us who you are, from whom you come, and what right you have over us. Thus far, all you possess belongs to the Creator. Of course, if you come from Him, and are acting for Him, we will bear your reproof. But if you come from some other god, I should wish you to tell us what you have ever committed to us belonging to yourself, which it was our duty to believe, seeing that you are upbraiding us with ‘faithlessness,’ who have never yet revealed to us your own self. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Ageruchia
Jacob in his flight from his brother left behind in his father’s house great riches and made his way with nothing into Mesopotamia. Moreover, to prove to us his powers of endurance, he took a stone for his pillow. Yet as he lay there he beheld a ladder set up on the earth reaching to heaven and behold the Lord stood above it, and the angels ascended and descended on it; the lesson being thus taught that the sinner must not despair of salvation nor the righteous man rest secure in his virtue. To pass over much of the story (for there is no time to explain all the points in the narrative) after twenty years he who before had passed over Jordan with his staff returned into his native land with three droves of cattle, rich in flocks and herds and richer still in children. …