Ezechiel 16:4
And when thou wast born, in the day of thy nativity thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed with water for thy health, nor salted with salt, nor swaddled with clouts.
Open Ezechiel 16:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et quando nata es, in die ortus tui non est præcisus umbilicus tuus, et aqua non es lota in salutem, nec sale salita, nec involuta pannis.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἡ γένεσίς σου· ἐν ᾗ ἡμέρᾳ ἐτέχθης οὐκ ἔδησας τοὺς μαστοὺς σου, καὶ ἐν ὕδατι οὐκ ἐλούσθης οὐδὲ ἁλὶ ἡλίσθης, καὶ σπαργάνοις οὐκ ἐσπαργανώθης,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וּמוֹלְדוֹתַ֗יִךְ בְּי֨וֹם הוּלֶּ֤דֶת אֹתָךְ֙ לֹֽא כָרַּ֣ת שָׁרֵּ֔ךְ וּבְמַ֥יִם לֹֽא רֻחַ֖צְתְּ לְמִשְׁעִ֑י וְהָמְלֵ֨חַ֙ לֹ֣א הֻמְלַ֔חַתְּ וְהָחְתֵּ֖ל לֹ֥א חֻתָּֽלְתְּ
Haydock's commentary
Cut. By this the infant received nourishment in the womb. Now it seems to be exposed by its parents. (Calmet)
The Jews in Egypt were abandoned to idolatry and distress. (Theodoret, in Canticle of Canticles)
Health. Many plunged the infant in cold water to brace its nerves, (Calmet) or to wash it. Salt was also used to dry up the humidity and stop the pores, (St. Jerome) or it was mixed with water to harden the skin and navel. (Avicen. Gall. San. i. 7.)
Clouts, to keep the body straight. The negroes who neglect this are stronger and better proportioned, (Calmet) and too much restraint is known to be detrimental to the tender limbs. (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
St John Chrysostom Homilies on First Corinthians, Homily XXXIX
[17.] But neither is the body, nor food, of the devil, but luxury alone. For by means of it that malignant fiend brings to pass his innumerable evils. Thus did he make victims of a whole people. “For the beloved waxed fat,” saith one, “and grew thick, and was enlarged, and kicked.” ( Deut. xxxii. 15 .) And thence also was the beginning of those thunderbolts on Sodom. And to declare this, Ezekiel said, “But this was the iniquity of Sodom, in pride and fulness of bread and refinements they waxed wanton.” ( Ezek. xvi. 4 .) Therefore also Paul said, ( 1 Tim. v. 6 .) “She that giveth herself to pleasure, is dead while she liveth.” How should this be? Because as a sepulchre she bears about her body, bound close to innumerable evils. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
The terms are chosen for decency’s sake, but the reproductive organs of the two sexes are meant. Thus, the descendant of David, who, according to the promise is to sit upon his throne, is said to come from his loins. And the seventy-five souls descended from Jacob who entered Egypt are said to come out of his thigh. So, also, when his thigh shrank after the Lord had wrestled with him, he ceased to beget children. The Israelites, again, are told to celebrate the passover with loins girded and mortified. God says to Job: “Gird up thy loins as a man.” John wears a leathern girdle. The apostles must gird their loins to carry the lamps of the Gospel. …