3 Kings 2:6
Do therefore according to thy wisdom, and let not his hoary head go down to hell in peace.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Facies ergo juxta sapientiam tuam, et non deduces canitiem ejus pacifice ad inferos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ποιήσεις κατὰ τὴν σοφίαν σου, καὶ σὺ κατάξεις τὴν πολιὰν αὐτοῦ ἐν εἰρήνῃ εἰς ᾅδου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְעָשִׂ֖יתָ כְּחָכְמָתֶ֑ךָ וְלֹֽא תוֹרֵ֧ד שֵׂיבָת֛וֹ בְּשָׁלֹ֖ם שְׁאֹֽל
Haydock's commentary
To hell. This word hell doth not signify the place or state of damnation; but the place and state of the dead. (Challoner)
It would have been a great scandal if this murderer had died quietly in his old age. Joab had rendered great services to his uncle, for which he had been rewarded. He had been at the head of the armies 40 years. His great age rendered him now less formidable; particularly as the nation enjoyed peace.
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 John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew XII. 33
But who avenged himself justly, yet kindled innumerable ills, and pierced himself through with many calamities and sorrows? The captain of David’s host. For he both stirred up a grievous war, and suffered unnumbered evils; not one whereof would have happened, had he but known how to command himself.