Exodus 11:5
And every firstborn in the land of the Egyptians shall die, from the firstborn of Pharao who sitteth on his throne, even to the first born of the handmaid that is at the mill, and all the firstborn of beasts.
Open Exodus 11:5 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- et morietur omne primogenitum in terra Ægyptiorum, a primogenito Pharaonis, qui sedet in solio ejus, usque ad primogenitum ancillæ quæ est ad molam, et omnia primogenita jumentorum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ τελευτήσει πᾶν πρωτότοκον ἐν γῇ Αἰγύπτῳ, ἀπὸ πρωτοτόκου Φαραὼ ὃς κάθηται ἐπὶ τοῦ θρόνου καὶ ἕως πρωτοτόκου τῆς θεραπαίνης τῆς παρὰ τὸν μύλον, καὶ ἕως πρωτοτόκου παντὸς κτήνους·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וּמֵ֣ת כָּל בְּכוֹר֮ בְּאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַיִם֒ מִבְּכ֤וֹר פַּרְעֹה֙ הַיֹּשֵׁ֣ב עַל כִּסְא֔וֹ עַ֚ד בְּכ֣וֹר הַשִּׁפְחָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֖ר אַחַ֣ר הָרֵחָ֑יִם וְכֹ֖ל בְּכ֥וֹר בְּהֵמָֽה
Haydock's commentary
Mill. The vilest slaves were thus employed in a sort of prison, chap. xii. 21. God makes no distinction between the king and the beggar. Death levels all.
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 De Principiis, Chapter I. translated from the Latin of Rufinus: On the Freedom of the Will
9. And now we must return an answer also to those who would have the God of the law to be just only, and not also good; and let us ask such in what manner they consider the heart of Pharaoh to have been hardened by God, by what acts or by what prospective arrangements. For we must observe the conception of a God who in our opinion is both just and good, but according to them only just. And let them show us how a God whom they also acknowledge to be just, can with justice cause the heart of a man to be hardened, that, in consequence of that very hardening, he may sin and be ruined. …
St Cyril of Jerusalem On the Clause, And Shall Come in Glory to Judge the Quick and the Dead; Of Whose Kingdom There Shall Be No End
23. But some one present will say, “I am a poor man,” or again, “I shall perhaps be found at that time sick in bed;” or, “I am but a woman, and I shall be taken at the mill: shall we then be despised?” Be of good courage, O man; the Judge is no respecter of persons; He will not judge according to a man’s appearance, nor reprove according to his speech . He honours not the learned before the simple, nor the rich before the needy. Though thou be in the field, the Angels shall take thee; think not that He will take the landowners, and leave thee the husbandman. Though thou be a slave, though thou be poor, be not any whit distressed; He who took the form of a servant despises not servants. Though thou be lying sick in bed, yet it is written, Then shall two be in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other left . …