Deuteronomy 32:30
How should one pursue after a thousand, and two chase ten thousand? Was it not, because their God had sold them, and the Lord had shut them up?
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quomodo persequatur unus mille, et duo fugent decem millia ? nonne ideo, quia Deus suus vendidit eos, et Dominus conclusit illos ?
- Septuagint (Swete)
- πῶς διώξεται εἷς χιλίους, καὶ δύο μετακινήσουσιν μυριάδας, εἰ μὴ ὁ θεὸς ἀπέδοτο αὐτούς, καὶ Κύριος παρέδωκεν αὐτούς;
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אֵיכָ֞ה יִרְדֹּ֤ף אֶחָד֙ אֶ֔לֶף וּשְׁנַ֖יִם יָנִ֣יסוּ רְבָבָ֑ה אִם לֹא֙ כִּי צוּרָ֣ם מְכָרָ֔ם וַֽיהוָ֖ה הִסְגִּירָֽם
Haydock's commentary
Thousand. In the battles which the Israelites had fought, the hand of God had appeared so visibly in their defence, giving them the victory over nations much more numerous, (Calmet) that all must confess their defeat must be in punishment of some former transgression, and that it is not the mighty hand of the enemy, but God himself, who chastises his people, as he had foretold, chap. xxviii. 7, 25, 49. (Haydock)
Of this the neighbouring nations were convinced, as Achior declared to the Holofernes, Judith v. 17. When the Hebrews neglected the law of God they were oppressed, and their conversion was presently rewarded with liberty, (Calmet) and a profusion of blessings.
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
Origen Origen Against Celsus, Chapter XXI
When, then, the letter of the law promises riches to the just, Celsus may follow the letter which killeth, and understand it of worldly riches, which blind men; but we say that it refers to those riches which enlighten the eyes, and which enrich a man “in all utterance and in all knowledge.” And in this sense we “charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded, nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, who giveth us richly all things to enjoy; that they do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to distribute, willing to communicate.” For, as Solomon says, “riches” are the true good, which “are the ransom of the life of a man;” but the poverty which is the opposite of these riches is destructive, for by it “the poor cannot bear rebuke.” And what has been said of riches applies to dominion, in regard to which it is said, “The just man shall chase a t …
St Gregory of Nyssa Answer to Eunomius' Second Book
The first part of my contentions against Eunomius has with God’s help been sufficiently established in the preceding work, as all who will may see from what I have worked out, how in that former part his fallacy has been completely exposed, and its falsehood has no further force against the truth, except in the case of those who show a very shameless animus against her. But since, like some robber’s ambuscade, he has got together a second work against orthodoxy, again with God’s help the truth takes up arms through me against the array of her enemies, commanding my arguments like a general and directing them at her pleasure against the foe; following whose steps I shall boldly venture on the second part of my contentions, nothing daunted by the array of falsehood, notwithstanding its display of numerous arguments. …