Ezechiel 5:2
A third part thou shalt burn with fire in the midst of the city, according to the fulfilling of the days of the siege: and thou shalt take a third part, and cut it in pieces with the knife all round about: and the other third part thou shalt scatter in the wind, and I will draw out the sword after them.
Open Ezechiel 5:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Tertiam partem igni combures in medio civitatis, juxta completionem dierum obsidionis, et assumes tertiam partem, et concides gladio in circuitu ejus : tertiam vero aliam disperges in ventum, et gladium nudabo post eos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τὸ τέταρτον ἐν πυρὶ ἀνακαύσεις ἐν μέσῃ τῇ πόλει κατὰ τὴν πλήρωσιν τῶν ἡμερῶν τοῦ συγκλεισμοῦ, καὶ λήμψῃ τὸ τέταρτον καὶ κατακαύσεις αὐτὸ ἐν μέσῳ αὐτῆς, καὶ τὸ τέταρτον κατακόψεις ἐν ῥομφαίᾳ κύκλῳ αὐτῆς, καὶ τὸ τέταρτον διασκορπίσεις τῷ πνεύματι, καὶ μάχαιραν ἐκκενώσω ὀπίσω αὐτῶν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- שְׁלִשִׁ֗ית בָּא֤וּר תַּבְעִיר֙ בְּת֣וֹךְ הָעִ֔יר כִּמְלֹ֖את יְמֵ֣י הַמָּצ֑וֹר וְלָֽקַחְתָּ֣ אֶת הַשְּׁלִשִׁ֗ית תַּכֶּ֤ה בַחֶ֨רֶב֙ סְבִ֣יבוֹתֶ֔יהָ וְהַשְּׁלִשִׁית֙ תִּזְרֶ֣ה לָר֔וּחַ וְחֶ֖רֶב אָרִ֥יק אַחֲרֵיהֶֽם
Haydock's commentary
Third. Septuagint and Theodotion read "a fourth," as also [in] ver. 12., (Calmet) thus assigning half to be burnt by death (pestilence) and famine. The other half of the people falls a prey to the sword and to captivity. The pestilence, famine, and the sword, were the three usual scourges left to David's choice, (2 Kings xxiv.) which here destroy each a fourth part, while the rest become captives. Yet even of this third or fourth part, many engage in civil broils, and perish. St. Jerome hints that the Septuagint is interpolated from Theodotion, ver. 12, and that their version only comprised the pentateuch. But the other books went at least under the same title; and there must be some mistake in the words asterisked, since they occur in the Hebrew, Vulgate, &c., third being only substituted for fourth: "And a fourth part of thee shall fall by the sword." The Hebrew is rather less degrading to the Jews, as there would be thus at most one-third preserved, instead of a part only of one-fourth. See Deuteronomy xxvii. 4., and Jeremias lii. 28.
Take. Septuagint add here, "a fourth part; and shalt burn it in the midst of it; and a fourth thou shalt cut," &c. (Haydock)
He was thus to deal with a part of the hair during 390 days, (Menochius) or at the end of them. (R. Salom.)
Round, in the cities near Jerusalem, (Worthington) or round the picture of it, chap. iv. 1.
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 Magnus an Orator of Rome
2. You ask me at the close of your letter why it is that sometimes in my writings I quote examples from secular literature and thus defile the whiteness of the church with the foulness of heathenism. I will now briefly answer your question. You would never have asked it, had not your mind been wholly taken up with Tully; you would never have asked it had you made it a practice instead of studying Volcatius to read the holy scriptures and the commentators upon them. For who is there who does not know that both in Moses and in the prophets there are passages cited from Gentile books and that Solomon proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre and answered others put to him by them. …