4 Kings 6:30
When the king heard this, he rent his garments, and passed by upon the wall. And all the people saw the haircloth which he wore within next to his flesh.
Open 4 Kings 6:30 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quod cum audisset rex, scidit vestimenta sua, et transibat per murum. Viditque omnis populus cilicium quo vestitus erat ad carnem intrinsecus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγένετο ὡς ἤκουσεν ὁ βασιλεὺς τοὺς λόγους τῆς γυναικός, διέρρηξεν τὰ ἱμάτια αὐτοῦ, καὶ αὐτὸς διεπορεύετο ἐπὶ τοῦ τείχους, καὶ εἶδεν ὁ λαὸς τὸν σάκκον ἐπὶ τῆς σαρκὸς αὐτοῦ ἔσωθεν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִי֩ כִשְׁמֹ֨עַ הַמֶּ֜לֶךְ אֶת דִּבְרֵ֤י הָֽאִשָּׁה֙ וַיִּקְרַ֣ע אֶת בְּגָדָ֔יו וְה֖וּא עֹבֵ֣ר עַל הַחֹמָ֑ה וַיַּ֣רְא הָעָ֔ם וְהִנֵּ֥ה הַשַּׂ֛ק עַל בְּשָׂר֖וֹ מִבָּֽיִת
Haydock's commentary
Passed by, without punishing such a horrid crime, as he esteemed his own sins the occasion of it. (Menochius)
Flesh. Behold the advantage to be derived from afflictions! They make the most hardened enter into sentiments of humility and penance. (Calmet)
Abulensis thinks that God was pleased to cause the siege to be raised, to reward this act; as a similar one of Joram's father had merited a delay and mitigation of punishment, (Haydock) 3 Kings xxi. 27. (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 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.
St John Cassian The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults, Chapter II. Of the Monk's Robe
Let the robe also of the monk be such as may merely cover the body and prevent the disgrace of nudity, and keep off harm from cold, not such as may foster the seeds of vanity and pride; for the same apostle tells us: “Having food and covering, with these let us be content.” “Covering,” he says, not “raiment,” as is wrongly found in some Latin copies: that is, what may merely cover the body, not what may please the fancy by the splendour of the attire; commonplace, so that it may not be thought remarkable for novelty of colour or fashion among other men of the same profession; and quite free from anxious carefulness, yet not discoloured by stains acquired through neglect. Lastly, let them be so far removed from this world’s fashions as to remain altogether common property for the use of the servants of God. …