Ezechiel 24:17
Sigh in silence, make no mourning for the dead: let the tire of thy head be upon thee, and thy shoes on thy feet, and cover not thy face, nor eat the meat of mourners.
Open Ezechiel 24:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ingemisce tacens : mortuorum luctum non facies : corona tua circumligata sit tibi, et calceamenta tua erunt in pedibus tuis : nec amictu ora velabis, nec cibos lugentium comedes.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- στεναγμὸς αἵματος, ὀσφύος, πένθους ἔσει· οὐκ ἔσται τὸ τρίχωμά σου συνπεπλεγμένον ἐπὶ σὲ καὶ τὰ ὑποδήματά σου ἐν τοῖς ποσίν σου, οὐ μὴ παρακληθῇς ἐν χείλεσιν αὐτῶν, καὶ ἄρτον ἀνδρῶν οὐ μὴ φάγῃς.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- הֵאָנֵ֣ק דֹּ֗ם מֵתִים֙ אֵ֣בֶל לֹֽא תַֽעֲשֶׂ֔ה פְאֵֽרְךָ֙ חֲב֣וֹשׁ עָלֶ֔יךָ וּנְעָלֶ֖יךָ תָּשִׂ֣ים בְּרַגְלֶ֑יךָ וְלֹ֤א תַעְטֶה֙ עַל שָׂפָ֔ם וְלֶ֥חֶם אֲנָשִׁ֖ים לֹ֥א תֹאכֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Silence, for such manifold calamities, if thou canst screen thyself from the enemy, who will otherwise take offence, as he has brought them on. (Haydock)
Dead. Priests were allowed to mourn only for father or mother, and their unmarried brothers and sisters, Leviticus xxi. 1. Ezechiel (xliv. 25.) adds, Son and daughter. Many think the wife must also be understood, as she is nearer than a brother. The reasons for these prohibitions did not then subsist, as no sacrifice could be offered in Chaldea; and therefore God here specifies what the prophet was not to do, (Calmet) though lawful on other occasions. (Sanctius)
Tire. Literally, "crown," bandage, (Calmet) or parchment, on which parts of the law were written. Septuagint, "Let (Roman edition adds, not) the hair of thy head be curled (or ruffed; sumpeplegmenon) upon thee." (Haydock)
It was usually cut in mourning. (St. Jerome)
Feet. They were bare, at funerals, and in times of sorrow, 2 Kings xv. 30.
Face, like David. Hebrew, "the upper lip," which mourners and lepers covered, Leviticus xiii. 45. (Calmet)
Mourners. Feasts were prepared by the relations, (Josephus, Jewish Wars ii. 1.) and friends sent some food, but no delicacies, to those who mourned, Leviticus v. 9.
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 Marcella
1. The medical men called surgeons pass for being cruel, but really deserve pity. For is it not pitiful to cut away the dead flesh of another man with merciless knives without being moved by his pangs? Is it not pitiful that the man who is curing the patient is callous to his sufferings, and has to appear as his enemy? Yet such is the order of nature. While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits upon evil-doing. Isaiah goes naked without blushing as a type of captivity to come. Jeremiah is sent from Jerusalem to the Euphrates (a river in Mesopotamia), and leaves his girdle to be marred in the Chaldæan camp, among the Assyrians hostile to his people. Ezekiel is told to eat bread made of mingled seeds and sprinkled with the dung of men and cattle. He has to see his wife die without shedding a tear. Amos is driven from Samaria. …