4 Kings 4:1
Now a certain woman of the wives of the prophets cried to Eliseus, saying: Thy servant my husband is dead, and thou knowest that thy servant was one that feared God, and behold the creditor is come to take away my two sons to serve him.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Mulier autem quædam de uxoribus prophetarum clamabat ad Eliseum, dicens : Servus tuus vir meus mortuus est, et tu nosti quia servus tuus fuit timens Dominum : et ecce creditor venit ut tollat duos filios meos ad serviendum sibi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ γυνὴ μία ἀπὸ τῶν υἱῶν τῶν προφητῶν ἐβόα πρὸς Ἐλεισαῖε λέγουσα Ὁ δοῦλός σου ὁ ἀνήρ μου ἀπέθανεν, καὶ σὺ ἔγνως ὅτι δοῦλος ἦν φοβούμενος τὸν κύριον· καὶ ὁ δανειστὴς ἦλθε λαβεῖν τοὺς δύο υἱούς μου ἑαυτῷ εἰς δούλους.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְאִשָּׁ֣ה אַחַ֣ת מִנְּשֵׁ֣י בְנֵֽי הַ֠נְּבִיאִים צָעֲקָ֨ה אֶל אֱלִישָׁ֜ע לֵאמֹ֗ר עַבְדְּךָ֤ אִישִׁי֙ מֵ֔ת וְאַתָּ֣ה יָדַ֔עְתָּ כִּ֣י עַבְדְּךָ֔ הָיָ֥ה יָרֵ֖א אֶת יְהוָ֑ה וְהַ֨נֹּשֶׁ֔ה בָּ֗א לָקַ֜חַת אֶת שְׁנֵ֧י יְלָדַ֛י ל֖וֹ לַעֲבָדִֽים
Haydock's commentary
Prophets. Josephus ([Antiquities?] ix. 4.) intimates that this man was Abdias; (3 Kings xviii. 13.) and the Rabbins pretend that Joram was the creditor. But these traditions are destitute of proof; and we know not that Abdias was a prophet. (Calmet)
Serve him, not as slaves, for the Hebrews were not thus to be sold, except they had commited some crime. (Salien, the year before Christ 913.) See Leviticus xxv. 39.
But the condition of mercenaries was perhaps little different; (Haydock) and we find that people were sold for debt, Exodus xxi. 7., and Isaias l. 1. The same practice seems to have continued till our Saviour's time, Matthew xviii. 25. Children were regarded as part of a person's property. The Romans, Athenians, and other nations, claimed the same right over them. (Halicar. ii. p. 96.; Plutarch, in Solon et Lucullus.) The custom of selling children continued for a long time in our [British] islands.
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.