Exodus 15:27
And the children of Israel came into Elim, where there were twelve fountains of water, and seventy palm trees: and they encamped by the waters.
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The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Venerunt autem in Elim filii Israël, ubi erant duodecim fontes aquarum, et septuaginta palmæ : et castrametati sunt juxta aquas.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ ἤλθοσαν εἰς Αἰλείμ, καὶ ἦσαν ἐκεῖ ιβ᾽ πηγαὶ ὑδάτων καὶ ἑβδομήκοντα στελέχη φοινίκων· παρενέβαλον δὲ ἐκεῖ παρὰ τὰ ὕδατα.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיָּבֹ֣אוּ אֵילִ֔מָה וְשָׁ֗ם שְׁתֵּ֥ים עֶשְׂרֵ֛ה עֵינֹ֥ת מַ֖יִם וְשִׁבְעִ֣ים תְּמָרִ֑ים וַיַּחֲנוּ שָׁ֖ם עַל הַמָּֽיִם
Haydock's commentary
Elim, to the north-west of Sinai. Shaw says there are now only nine fountains. (Haydock)
Strabo mentions a place of this description, five days' journey from Jericho, which was consecrated to the gods. (B. xvi. p. 511.) (Calmet)
We might here, (at the conclusion of the third age, according to those who call the deluge the first, and Abraham's call, the second,) pause, with Dr. Worthington, to take a view of the progress of the Church, and of the true doctrine, which has at all times been believed. But the attentive reader of the sacred text, and of these notes, will find this done to his hand almost in every page. Meditate upon these things...Take heed to thyself and to doctrine, be earnest in them, 1 Timothy iv. 15. The holy Job probably lived about this time, so that his book may serve to corroborate those truths, which were the objects of faith to some good men living among the Gentiles, as well as to the more favoured nation of the Jews. (Haydock)
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
Tertullian The Five Books Against Marcion, On the Mission of the Seventy Disciples, and Christ's Charge to Them. Precedents Drawn from the Old Testament. Absurdity of Supposing that Marcion's Christ Could Have Given the Power of Treading on Serpents and Scorpions
He chose also seventy other missionaries besides the twelve. Now why, if the twelve followed the number of the twelve fountains of Elim, should not the seventy correspond to the like number of the palms of that place? Whatever be the Antitheses of the comparison, it is a diversity in the causes, not in the powers, which has mainly produced them. But if one does not keep in view the diversity of the causes , he is very apt to infer a difference of powers . When the children of Israel went out of Egypt, the Creator brought them forth laden with their spoils of gold and silver vessels, and with loads besides of raiment and unleavened dough; whereas Christ commanded His disciples not to carry even a staff for their journey. The former were thrust forth into a desert, but the latter were sent into cities. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Oceanus
6. Let me now fulfil the promise I made a little while ago and with all the skill of a rhetorician sing the praises of water and of baptism. In the beginning the earth was without form and void, there was no dazzling sun or pale moon, there were no glittering stars. There was nothing but matter inorganic and invisible, and even this was lost in abysmal depths and shrouded in a distorting gloom. The Spirit of God above moved, as a charioteer, over the face of the waters, and produced from them the infant world, a type of the Christian child that is drawn from the laver of baptism. A firmament is constructed between heaven and earth, and to this is allotted the name heaven, in the Hebrew Shamayim or ‘what comes out of the waters,’, and the waters which are above the heavens are parted from the others to the praise of God. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Rusticus
10. Quite recently we have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of Crœsus brought to light by a monk’s death, and a city’s alms, collected for the poor, left by will to his sons and successors. After sinking to the bottom the iron has once more floated upon the surface, and men have again seen among the palm-trees the bitter waters of Marah. In this there is, however, nothing strange, for the man had for his companion and teacher one who turned the hunger of the needy into a source of wealth for himself and kept back sums left to the miserable to his own subsequent misery. Yet their cry came up to heaven and entering God’s ears overcame His patience. Wherefore, He sent an angel of woe to say to this new Carmelite, this second Nabal, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”