Genesis 26:8
And when very many days were passed, and he abode there, Abimelech king of the Palestines looking out through a window, saw him playing with Rebecca his wife.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Cumque pertransissent dies plurimi, et ibidem moraretur, prospiciens Abimelech rex Palæstinorum per fenestram, vidit eum jocantem cum Rebecca uxore sua.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐγένετο δὲ πολυχρόνιος ἐκεῖ· παρακύψας δὲ Ἀβιμέλεχ ὁ βασιλεὺς Γεράρων διὰ τῆς θυρίδος ἴδεν τὸν Ἰσαὰκ παίζοντα μετὰ Ῥεβέκκας τῆς γυναικὸς αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיְהִ֗י כִּ֣י אָֽרְכוּ ל֥וֹ שָׁם֙ הַיָּמִ֔ים וַיַּשְׁקֵ֗ף אֲבִימֶ֨לֶךְ֙ מֶ֣לֶךְ פְּלִשְׁתִּ֔ים בְּעַ֖ד הַֽחַלּ֑וֹן וַיַּ֗רְא וְהִנֵּ֤ה יִצְחָק֙ מְצַחֵ֔ק אֵ֖ת רִבְקָ֥ה אִשְׁתּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
His wife; using greater familiarity than a grave and virtuous man, like Isaac, would offer to do with his sister, or with another person's wife.
Sin, or punishment, (Menochius) such as Abimelech's father had formerly experienced. (Haydock)
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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter V. All Who Walk According to Truth are Children of God
In contradistinction, therefore, to the older people, the new people are called young, having learned the new blessings; and we have the exuberance of life’s morning prime in this youth which knows no old age, in which we are always growing to maturity in intelligence, are always young, always mild, always new: for those must necessarily be new, who have become partakers of the new Word. And that which participates in eternity is wont to be assimilated to the incorruptible: so that to us appertains the designation of the age of childhood, a lifelong spring-time, because the truth that is in us, and our habits saturated with the truth, cannot be touched by old age; but Wisdom is ever blooming, ever remains consistent and the same, and never changes. …
Tertullian On the Apparel of Women, Chapter II
You must know that in the eye of perfect, that is, Christian, modesty, (carnal) desire of one’s self (on the part of others) is not only not to be desired, but even execrated, by you: first, because the study of making personal grace (which we know to be naturally the inviter of lust) a mean of pleasing does not spring from a sound conscience: why therefore excite toward yourself that evil (passion)? why invite (that) to which you profess yourself a stranger? secondly, because we ought not to open a way to temptations, which, by their instancy, sometimes achieve (a wickedness) which God expels from them who are His; (or,) at all events, put the spirit into a thorough tumult by (presenting) a stumbling-block (to it). …
St Augustine Expositions on the Book of Psalms, Psalm CV
8. “What time as they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people” ( ver. 13 ). This is a repetition of what he had said, “from one nation to another.” “He suffered no man to do them harm: but reproved even kings for their sakes” ( ver. 14 ). “Touch not,” He said, “Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm” ( ver. 15 ). He declareth the words of God chiding or reproving kings, that they might not harm the holy fathers, while they were small in number, very few, and they strangers in the land of Canaan. Although these words be not read in the books of that history, yet they are to be understood as either secretly spoken, as God speaketh in the hearts of men by unseen and true visions, or even as announced through an Angel. …