Ezechiel 16:51
And Samaria committed not half thy sins: but thou hast surpassed them with thy crimes, and hast justified thy sisters by all thy abominations which thou hast done.
Open Ezechiel 16:51 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et Samaria dimidium peccatorum tuorum non peccavit : sed vicisti eas sceleribus tuis, et justificasti sorores tuas in omnibus abominationibus tuis quas operata es.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ Σαμάρεια κατὰ τὰς ἡμίσεις τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν σου οὐχ ἥμαρτεν· καὶ ἐπλήθυνας τὰς ἀνομίας σου ὑπὲρ αὐτάς, καὶ ἐδικαίωσας τὰς ἀδελφάς σου ἐν πάσαις ταῖς ἀνομίαις σου αἷς ἐποίησας.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וְשֹׁ֣מְר֔וֹן כַּחֲצִ֥י חַטֹּאתַ֖יִךְ לֹ֣א חָטָ֑אָה וַתַּרְבִּ֤י אֶת תּוֹעֲבוֹתַ֨יִךְ֙ מֵהֵ֔נָּה וַתְּצַדְּקִי֙ אֶת אחותך בְּכָל תּוֹעֲבוֹתַ֖יִךְ אֲשֶׁ֥ר עשיתי
Haydock's commentary
Justified, as they are comparatively innocent. (St. Augustine, contra Faust. xxii. 61.)
They had not the like advantages, (Matthew xi. 23.) nor the example of others' punishment to open their eyes. Thou hast pleaded for or with them, and hast lost thy cause. (Calmet)
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 Augustine On Baptism, Against the Donatists, Chapter 44
86. By what rule he asserts that heretics are worse than heathens I do not know, seeing that the Lord says, "If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." Is a heretic worse even than such? I do not gainsay it. I do not, however, allow that because the man himself is worse than a heathen, that is, than a Gentile and pagan, therefore whatever the sacrament contains that is Christ’s is mingled with his vices and character, and perishes through the corruption of such admixture. For if even those who depart from the Church, and become not the followers but the founders of heresies, have been baptized before their secession, they continue to have baptism, although, according to the above rule, they are worse than heathens; for if on correction they return, they do not receive it, as they certainly would do if they had lost it. …