3 Kings 19:3
Then Elias was afraid, and rising up he went whithersoever he had a mind: and he came to Bersabee of Juda, and left his servant there,
Open 3 Kings 19:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Timuit ergo Elias, et surgens abiit quocumque eum ferebat voluntas : venitque in Bersabee Juda, et dimisit ibi puerum suum,
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐφοβήθη Ἠλειού, καὶ ἀνέστη καὶ ἀπῆλθεν κατὰ τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ ἔρχεται εἰς Βηρσάβεε γῆν Ἰούδα, καὶ ἀφῆκεν τὸ παιδάριον αὐτοῦ ἐκεῖ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּ֗רְא וַיָּ֨קָם֙ וַיֵּ֣לֶךְ אֶל נַפְשׁ֔וֹ וַיָּבֹ֕א בְּאֵ֥ר שֶׁ֖בַע אֲשֶׁ֣ר לִֽיהוּדָ֑ה וַיַּנַּ֥ח אֶֽת נַעֲר֖וֹ שָֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Afraid. Hebrew, "he saw, arose, and went for his life." (Haydock)
He was aware of a woman's anger, Ecclesiasticus xxv. 23. Though he goes intrepidly to meet Achab, he flees before a woman, God being desirous that he should exercise humility, (Theodoret, q. 57, &c.) though some think that he had given way to a secret fault; (Calmet) which is a groundless assertion. (Haydock)
He must confess that all his strength is from above. (Tirinus)
Mind, to escape notice. (Menochius)
Bersabee, at the southern extremity of the kingdom of Juda, perhaps fifty leagues from Samaria, and five more from Jezrahel. (Calmet)
Servant, the boy whom he had raised to life. (Abulensis)
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
Tertullian On Fasting, Chapter IX
I return likewise to Elijah. When the ravens had been wont to satisfy him with “bread and flesh ,” why was it that afterwards, at Beersheba of Judea, that certain angel, after rousing him from sleep, offered him, beyond doubt, bread alone , and water? Had ravens been wanting, to feed him more liberally? or had it been difficult to the “angel” to carry away from some pan of the banquet-room of the king some attendant with his amply-furnished waiter, and transfer him to Elijah, just as the breakfast of the reapers was carried into the den of lions and presented to Daniel in his hunger? But it behoved that an example should be set, teaching us that, at a time of pressure and persecution and whatsoever difficulty, we must live on xerophagies. …
Socrates Scholasticus Book III, Quotations from Athanasius' 'Defense of his Flight.'
On this occasion Athanasius read to those present the Defense which he had composed some time before in justification of his flight; a few passages from which it may be of service to introduce here, leaving the entire production, which is too long to be transcribed, to be sought out and perused by the studious. See the daring enormities of the impious persons! Such are their proceedings: and yet instead of blushing at their former clumsy intrigues against us, they even now abuse us for having effected our escape out of their murderous hands; nay, are grievously vexed that they were unable to put us out of the way altogether. …
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of Monks
5. For thus it is written, my beloved, concerning Moses, that from the time the Holy One was revealed to him, he also loved holiness. And from the time he was sanctified, his wife ministered not to him. But it is thus written: Joshua, the son of Nun, was the minister of Moses from his childhood . And of Joshua again it is thus written concerning him, that he used not to depart from the tabernacle . And the temporal tabernacle was not ministered to by a woman, because the Law did not allow women to enter the temporal tabernacle, but even when they came to pray, they used to pray at the door of the temporal tabernacle, and then turn back. Moreover, he commanded the Priests, that at the time of their ministry they should continue in holiness, and should not know their wives. …