Exodus 27:20
Command the children of Israel that they bring thee the purest oil of the olives, and beaten with a pestle: that a lamp may burn always,
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Præcipe filiis Israël ut afferant tibi oleum de arboribus olivarum purissimum, piloque contusum, ut ardeat lucerna semper
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ σὺ σύνταξον τοῖς υἱοῖς Ἰσραήλ, καὶ λαβέτωσάν σοι ἔλαιον ἐξ ἐλαίων ἄτρυγον καθαρὸν κεκομμένον εἰς φῶς καῦσαι, ἵνα κάηται λύχνος διὰ παντὸς
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְאַתָּ֞ה תְּצַוֶּ֣ה אֶת בְּנֵ֣י יִשְׂרָאֵ֗ל וְיִקְח֨וּ אֵלֶ֜יךָ שֶׁ֣מֶן זַ֥יִת זָ֛ךְ כָּתִ֖ית לַמָּא֑וֹר לְהַעֲלֹ֥ת נֵ֖ר תָּמִֽיד
Haydock's commentary
Pestle. That it may be as free from dregs as possible; quasi luxurians defluxerit. (Colum. xii. 50.) The Hebrew and Septuagint are silent about the pestle. The olives must, however, be a little bruised, before they will yield their oil. (Haydock)
Always: four of the seven lamps were extinguished every morning. ( Josephus, [Antiquities?] iii. 9; 1 Kings iii. 3.) Hecateus (ap. Eusebuis, præp. ix. 4) assures us, that a light was kept always burning in the tabernacle. The temple of Hercules, at the Straits, its priests and ceremonies, bore some resemblance with the tabernacle and usages prescribed by Moses. It was probably erected by the Phenicians. (Calmet)
"The wood seemed to be incorruptible. Women and swine are kept at a distance. White linen covers the priests at the altar; that which adorns their head is most beautiful, and brought from Pelusium. Et Pelusiaco præfulget stamine vertex. They offer incense in long ungirded robes, but the vestment in which they sacrifice, is distinguished with a Latus clavus, or with broad studs of purple, (like the Roman senators.) They go barefoot, their hair is shaved, and they observe continency, castumque cubile. They keep a perpetual fire burning on the altars. But no images or statues of the gods have filled the place with majesty and sacred fear."
Sed nulla effigies, simulacraque nota Deorum,
Majestate locum & sacro implevere timore. (Sil. Italic. iii.)
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 Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Gaudentius
2. Some mothers when they have vowed a daughter to virginity clothe her in sombre garments, wrap her up in a dark cloak, and let her have neither linen nor gold ornaments. They wisely refuse to accustom her to what she will afterwards have to lay aside. Others act on the opposite principle. “What is the use,” say they, “of keeping such things from her? Will she not see them with others? Women are fond of finery and many whose chastity is beyond question dress not for men but for themselves. Give her what she asks for, but shew her that those are most praised who ask for nothing. It is better that she should enjoy things to the full and so learn to despise them than that from not having them she should wish to have them.” “This,” they continue, “was the plan which the Lord adopted with the children of Israel. …