Ezechiel 16:6
And passing by thee, I saw that thou wast trodden under foot in thy own blood. and I said to thee when thou wast in thy blood: Live: I have said to thee: Live in thy blood.
Open Ezechiel 16:6 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Transiens autem per te, vidi te conculcari in sanguine tuo : et dixi tibi cum esses in sanguine tuo : Vive, dixi, inquam, tibi : in sanguine tuo vive.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ διῆλθον ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ ἴδον σε πεφυρμένην ἐν τῷ αἵματι, καὶ εἶπά σοι Ἐκ τοῦ αἵματός σου ζωή·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וָאֶעֱבֹ֤ר עָלַ֨יִךְ֙ וָֽאֶרְאֵ֔ךְ מִתְבּוֹסֶ֖סֶת בְּדָמָ֑יִךְ וָאֹ֤מַר לָךְ֙ בְּדָמַ֣יִךְ חֲיִ֔י וָאֹ֥מַר לָ֖ךְ בְּדָמַ֥יִךְ חֲיִֽי
Haydock's commentary
Thy blood, unwashed after being born, ver. 4. (Calmet)
The Jews were solicitous to increase their numbers, and exposed none. (Tacitus, Hist. v.)
But other nations did, if they thought the child would be troublesome, or a disgrace. (Calmet)
The prophet sends this admonition from Chaldea, and shews how God had selected his people from among the barbarous nations, and decorated them with many privileges of the law, sacrifices, &c. (Worthington)
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 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew XII. 38, 39
With this He charges Jerusalem also by Ezekiel. “I saw thee,” saith He, “polluted in blood; and I washed thee, and anointed thee; and thou hadst renown for thy beauty; and thou pouredst out thy fornications,” saith He, “on those who dwell near thee,”wherefore also the more grievous are His threatenings to thee when thou sinnest.
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. …