3 Kings 20:11
And the king of Israel answering, said: Tell him: Let not the girded boast himself as the ungirded.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et respondens rex Israël, ait : Dicite ei : Ne glorietur, accinctus æque ut discinctus.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from 3 Kings 21:11
- καὶ ἀπεκρίθη βασιλεὺς Ἰσραὴλ καὶ εἶπεν ἱκανούσθω· μὴ καυχάσθω ὁ κυρτὸς ὡς ὁ ὀρθός.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּ֤עַן מֶֽלֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ וַיֹּ֣אמֶר דַּבְּר֔וּ אַל יִתְהַלֵּ֥ל חֹגֵ֖ר כִּמְפַתֵּֽחַ
Haydock's commentary
Let not the girded, &c. Let him not boast before the victory: it will then be time to glory when he putteth off his armour, having overcome his adversary. (Challoner)
"Let not him who goes to battle, though well armed, boast; but the man who returns victorious." (Chaldean) "Enough: let not the man with a crooked back boast, as one that is upright." (Septuagint) "Let not him that girdeth, (Haydock) or is bound," (Hebrew) or rather "shutteth up, boast, as he that openeth." (Syriac) It is easy to besiege: but the city does not always fall. Neither people in arms, nor the unarmed, have reason to boast; as the former are often made prisoners, as soon as the latter. (Calmet)
A despised enemy sometimes proves most dangerous. (Haydock)
Those who distrust in themselves, and place their confidence in God, prevail: a necessary lesson both in temporal and spiritual warfare. (Worthington)
The fortune of war is very doubtful. (Tirinus)
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
Aphrahat Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations, Of Persecution
7. As to those that reproach us (saying): “Ye are persecuted and are not delivered,” let them be ashamed themselves, that at every time they have been persecuted, even for many years before they were delivered. They were made to serve in Egypt two hundred and twenty-five years. And the Midianites made Israel serve in the days of Barak and Deborah. The Moabites ruled over them in the days of Ehud; the Ammonites in the days of Jephthah; the Philistines in the days of Samson, and also in the days of Eli and of Samuel the Prophet; the Edomites in the days of Ahab; the Assyrians in the days of Hezekiah. The king of Babylon uprooted them from their place and dispersed them; and after he had tried and persecuted them much, they did not amend, as He said to them: In vain have I smitten your sons, for they did not accept chastisement . …