Genesis 18:4
But I will fetch a little water, and wash ye your feet, and rest ye under the tree.
Open Genesis 18:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- sed afferam pauxillum aquæ, et lavate pedes vestros, et requiescite sub arbore.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- λημφθήτω δὴ ὕδωρ, καὶ νιψάτω τοὺς πόδας ὑμῶν· καὶ καταψύξατε ὑπὸ τὸ δένδρον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- יֻקַּֽח נָ֣א מְעַט מַ֔יִם וְרַחֲצ֖וּ רַגְלֵיכֶ֑ם וְהִֽשָּׁעֲנ֖וּ תַּ֥חַת הָעֵֽץ
Haydock's commentary
Wash ye, or let your feet be washed by me, or by my servants, laventur. (Menochius)
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 Letter XCV
8. From this arises the question as to angels, whether they have bodies adapted to their duties and their swift motions from place to place, or are only spirits? For if we say that they have bodies, we are met by the passage: “He maketh His angels spirits;” and if we say that they have not bodies, a still greater difficulty meets us in explaining how, if they are without bodily form, it is written that they appeared to the bodily senses of men, accepted offers of hospitality, permitted their feet to be washed, and used the meat and drink which was provided for them. For it seems to involve us in less difficulty, if we suppose that the angels are there called spirits in the same manner as men are called souls, e.g. …
St Ambrose Exposition of the Christian Faith, Chapter VIII. Christ's saying, “The Father is greater than I,” is explained in accordance with the principle just established. Other like sayings are expounded in like fashion. Our Lord cannot, as touching His Godhead, be called inferior to the Father
72. Otherwise, if our adversaries will understand this passage as referred to the Father, then the rest of the record does not agree with it. For the Father did not appear to Abraham, nor did Abraham wash the feet of God the Father, but the feet of Him in Whom is the image of the man that shall be. Moreover, the Son of God saith, “Abraham saw My day, and rejoiced.” It is He, therefore, Who sware by Himself, [and] Whom Abraham saw.