Exodus 18:23
If thou dost this, thou shalt fulfill the commandment of God, and shalt be able to bear his precepts: and all this people shall return to their places with peace.
Open Exodus 18:23 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Si hoc feceris, implebis imperium Dei, et præcepta ejus poteris sustentare : et omnis hic populus revertetur ad loca sua cum pace.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐὰν τὸ ῥῆμα τοῦτο ποιήσῃς, κατισχύσει σε ὁ θεὸς καὶ δυνήσῃ παραστῆναι, καὶ πᾶς ὁ λαὸς οὗτος εἰς τὸν ἑαυτοῦ τόπον μετ᾽ εἰρήνης ἥξει.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אִ֣ם אֶת הַדָּבָ֤ר הַזֶּה֙ תַּעֲשֶׂ֔ה וְצִוְּךָ֣ אֱלֹהִ֔ים וְיָֽכָלְתָּ֖ עֲמֹ֑ד וְגַם֙ כָּל הָעָ֣ם הַזֶּ֔ה עַל מְקֹמ֖וֹ יָבֹ֥א בְשָׁלֽוֹם
Haydock's commentary
Thou shalt. Hebrew, "and God shall order thee." Jethro does not wish his advice should be followed, till God had been consulted. (Calmet)
By his plan, he thought Moses would have time to confer more with God, and promote his own welfare, and the convenient dispatch of business. (Menochius)
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 On Prayer, The Sixth Clause
It was suitable that, after contemplating the liberality of God, we should likewise address His clemency. For what will aliments profit us, if we are really consigned to them, as it were a bull destined for a victim? The Lord knew Himself to be the only guiltless One, and so He teaches that we beg “to have our debts remitted us.” A petition for pardon is a full confession; because he who begs for pardon fully admits his guilt. Thus, too, penitence is demonstrated acceptable to God who desires it rather than the death of the sinner. Moreover, debt is, in the Scriptures, a figure of guilt ; because it is equally due to the sentence of judgment, and is exacted by it: nor does it evade the justice of exaction, unless the exaction be remitted, just as the lord remitted to that slave in the parable his debt; for hither does the scope of the whole parable tend. …
St Augustine Letter CLXVI
9. You have sent to me scholars, to whom you wish me to impart what I have not yet learned myself. Teach me, therefore, what I am to teach them; for many urge me vehemently to be a teacher on this subject, and to them I confess that of this, as well as of many other things, I am ignorant, and perhaps, though they maintain a respectful demeanour in my presence, they say among themselves: “Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?” a rebuke which the Lord gave to one who belonged to the class of men who delighted in being called Rabbi; which was also the reason of his coming by night to the true Teacher, because perchance he, who had been accustomed to teach, blushed to take the learner’s place. But, for my own part, it gives me much more pleasure to hear instruction from another, than to be myself listened to as a teacher. …