The Motif Searcher: one word across the Douay, the Latin, the Greek and the Hebrew.

4 Kings 6:22

And he said: Thou shalt not kill them: for thou didst not take them with thy sword, or thy bow, that thou mayst kill them: but set bread and water before them, that they may eat and drink, and go to their master.

Open 4 Kings 6:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →

The verse in its languages

Vulgate (Clementine): At ille ait : Non percuties : neque enim cepisti eos gladio et arcu tuo, ut percutias : sed pone panem et aquam coram eis, ut comedant et bibant, et vadant ad dominum suum.
Septuagint (Swete): καὶ εἶπεν Οὐ πατάξεις, εἰ μὴ οὓς ᾐχμαλώτευσας ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ σου καὶ τόξῳ σου σὺ τύπτεις· παράθες ἄρτους καὶ ὕδωρ ἐνώπιον αὐτῶν, καὶ φαγέτωσαν καὶ πιέτωσαν, καὶ ἀπελθέτωσαν πρὸς τὸν κύριον αὐτῶν.
Hebrew (WLC): וַיֹּ֨אמֶר֙ לֹ֣א תַכֶּ֔ה הַאֲשֶׁ֥ר שָׁבִ֛יתָ בְּחַרְבְּךָ֥ וּֽבְקַשְׁתְּךָ֖ אַתָּ֣ה מַכֶּ֑ה שִׂים֩ לֶ֨חֶם וָמַ֜יִם לִפְנֵיהֶ֗ם וְיֹֽאכְלוּ֙ וְיִשְׁתּ֔וּ וְיֵלְכ֖וּ אֶל אֲדֹנֵיהֶֽם

Haydock's commentary

For thou. Hebrew, "Dost thou kill, &c.?" If those who have surrendered themselves in battle be often spared, though they might be slain by the strict laws of war, how much less ought these men to be treated with such severity? (Calmet)

Sicut bellanti & resistenti violentia redditur: ita victo vel capto misericorida jam debetur. (St. Augustine, ep. 1. ad Bonif.) (Grotius)

And water, all necessary provisions. (Worthington)

These men were suffered to live that they might relate the wonders of God. (Theodoret, q. 20.)

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 Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium

9. When Elijah, in his flight from Jezebel, lay weary and desolate beneath the oak, there came an angel who raised him up and said, “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold there was a cake and a cruse of water at his head. Had God willed it, might He not have sent His prophet spiced wines and dainty dishes and flesh basted into tenderness? When Elisha invited the sons of the prophets to dinner, he only gave them field-herbs to eat; and when all cried out with one voice: “There is death in the pot,” the man of God did not storm at the cooks (for he was not used to very sumptuous fare), but caused meal to be brought, and casting it in, sweetened the bitter mess with spiritual strength as Moses had once sweetened the waters of Mara. …

St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XXIX. Justice should be observed even in war and with enemies. This is proved by the example of Moses and Elisha. The ancient writers learnt in turn from the Hebrews to call their enemies by a gentler term. Lastly, the foundation of justice rests on faith, and its symmetry is perfect in the Church

139. How great a thing justice is can be gathered from the fact that there is no place, nor person, nor time, with which it has nothing to do. It must even be preserved in all dealings with enemies. For instance, if the day or the spot for a battle has been agreed upon with them, it would be considered an act against justice to occupy the spot beforehand, or to anticipate the time. For there is some difference whether one is overcome in some battle by a severe engagement, or by superior skill, or by a mere chance. But a deeper vengeance is taken on fiercer foes, and on those that are false as well as on those who have done greater wrongs, as was the case with the Midianites. For they had made many of the Jewish people to sin through their women; for which reason the anger of the Lord was poured out upon the people of our fathers. …

140. If, then, justice is binding, even in war, how much more ought we to observe it in time of peace. Such favour the prophet showed to those who came to seize him. We read that the king of Syria had sent his army to lie in wait for him, for he had learnt that it was Elisha who had made known to all his plans and consultations. And Gehazi the prophet’s servant, seeing the army, began to fear that his life was in danger. But the prophet said to him: “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.” And when the prophet asked that the eyes of his servant might be opened, they were opened. Then Gehazi saw the whole mountain full of horses and chariots round about Elisha. …

St Ambrose On the Duties of the Clergy, Chapter XX. After the terrible siege of Samaria was ended in accordance with Elisha's prophecy, he relates what regard the four lepers showed for what was virtuous

118. There was a great famine in Samaria, for the army of the Syrians was besieging it. The king in his anxiety was making the round of the guards on the walls when a woman addressed him, saying: This woman persuaded me to give up my son, and I gave him up, and we boiled him and did eat him. And she promised that she would afterwards bring her son and that we should eat his flesh together, but now she hath hidden her son and will not bring him. The king was troubled because these women seemed to have fed not merely on human bodies, but on the bodies of their own children; and being moved by an example of such awful misery, threatened the prophet Elisha with death. For he believed it was in his power to break up the siege and to avert the famine; or else he was angry because the prophet had not allowed the king to smite the Syrians whom he had struck with blindness.

The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).