3 Kings 20:31
And his servants said to him: Behold, we have heard that the kings of the house of Israel are merciful: so let us put sackcloth on our loins, and ropes on our heads, and go out to the king of Israel: perhaps he will save our lives.
Open 3 Kings 20:31 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Dixeruntque ei servi sui : Ecce, audivimus quod reges domus Israël clementes sint : ponamus itaque saccos in lumbis nostris, et funiculos in capitibus nostris, et egrediamur ad regem Israël : forsitan salvabit animas nostras.
- Septuagint (Swete) shown from 3 Kings 21:31
- καὶ εἶπεν τοῖς παισὶν αὐτοῦ Οἶδα ὅτι βασιλεῖς Ἰσραὴλ βασιλεῖς ἐλέους εἰσίν· ἐπιθώμεθα δὴ σάκκους ἐπὶ τὰς ὀσφύας ἡμῶν καὶ σχοινία ἐπὶ τὰς κεφαλὰς ἡμῶν καὶ ἐξέλθωμεν ἔτι πρὸς βασιλέα Ἰσραήλ, εἴ πως ζωογονήσει τὰς ψυχὰς ἡμῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּאמְר֣וּ אֵלָיו֮ עֲבָדָיו֒ הִנֵּֽה נָ֣א שָׁמַ֔עְנוּ כִּ֗י מַלְכֵי֙ בֵּ֣ית יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל כִּֽי מַלְכֵ֥י חֶ֖סֶד הֵ֑ם נָשִׂ֣ימָה נָּא֩ שַׂקִּ֨ים בְּמָתְנֵ֜ינוּ וַחֲבָלִ֣ים בְּרֹאשֵׁ֗נוּ וְנֵצֵא֙ אֶל מֶ֣לֶךְ יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אוּלַ֖י יְחַיֶּ֥ה אֶת נַפְשֶֽׁךָ
Haydock's commentary
Heads, or necks, to indicate that hey deserved to die. (Haydock)
The Syrians acted thus, when they came as supplicants. (Josephus, [Antiquities?] viii. 14.)
The son of Psammetichus, king of Egypt, was led in this manner to execution, with 2000 others. (Herodotus iii. 14.)
Bessus was conducted to Alexander with a chain round his neck. (Curt. vii.) (Calmet)
What a reverse of fortune do we here behold! (Salien)
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 Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part III. Containing Conferences XVIII.-XXIV, Chapter XVII. How the weaker part of the soul is the first to yield to the devil's temptations
You should then apply to this member or part of the soul which we have described as particularly wounded, the remedy of true humility: for as, so far as appears, it is weaker than the other powers of the soul in you, it is sure to be the first to yield to the assaults of the devil. As when some injuries come upon us, which are caused either by toil laid upon us or by a bad atmosphere, it is generally the case in the bodies of men that those which are the weaker are the first to give in and yield to those chances, and when the disease has more particularly laid hold of them, it affects the sound parts of the body also with the same mischief, so also, when the pestilent blast of sin breathes over us the soul of each one of us is sure to be tempted above all by that passion, in the case of which its feebler and weaker portion does not make so stubborn a resistance to the powerful attacks of …