Genesis 34:2
And when Sichem the son of Hemor the Hevite, the prince of that land, saw her, he was in love with her: and took her away, and lay with her, ravishing the virgin.
Open Genesis 34:2 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quam cum vidisset Sichem filius Hemor Hevæi, princeps terræ illius, adamavit eam : et rapuit, et dormivit cum illa, vi opprimens virginem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἴδεν αὐτὴν Συχὲμ ὁ υἱὸς Ἐμμὼρ ὁ Χορραῖος, ὁ ἄρχων τῆς γῆς· καὶ λαβὼν αὐτὴν ἐκοιμήθη μετ᾽ αὐτῆς, καὶ ἐταπείνωσεν αὐτήν.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיַּ֨רְא אֹתָ֜הּ שְׁכֶ֧ם בֶּן חֲמ֛וֹר הַֽחִוִּ֖י נְשִׂ֣יא הָאָ֑רֶץ וַיִּקַּ֥ח אֹתָ֛הּ וַיִּשְׁכַּ֥ב אֹתָ֖הּ וַיְעַנֶּֽהָ
Haydock's commentary
Virgin. Hebrew and Septuagint, "He humbled or afflicted the virgin." It is well if she made all the resistance she was able, and resented the indignity; as she seems to have done, though Sichem tried all means to comfort her. (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
St Ambrose On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus, Book II. On the Belief in the Resurrection
23. The holy patriarch Israel fled from his country, was exiled from his father, relatives, and home, he mourned over the shame of his daughter and the death of his son, he endured famine, when dead he lost his own grave, for he entreated that his bones should be translated, lest even in death he should find rest.
St Gregory the Great The Book of Pastoral Rule, How they are to be admonished who lament sins of deed, and those who lament only sins of thought
They are to be admonished to build upon the mercy which they crave, lest they perish through the force of immoderate affliction. For the Lord would not set sins to be deplored before the eyes of offenders, were it His will to smite them with strict severity Himself. For it is evident that it has been His will to hide from His own judgment those whom in anticipation He has made judges of themselves. For hence it is written, Let us come beforehand before the face of the Lord in confession ( Ps. xciv. 2 ). Hence through Paul it is said, If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged ( 1 Cor. xi. 31 ). And again, they are to be admonished so to be confident in hope as not to grow torpid in careless security. For commonly the crafty foe, when he sees the soul which he trips up by sin to be afflicted for its fall, seduces it by the blandishments of baneful security. …
St Gregory the Great Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great, To Domitian, Metropolitan
On receiving the letters of your most sweet Blessedness I greatly rejoiced, since they spoke much to me of sacred Scripture. And, finding in them the dainties that I love, I greedily devoured them. Therein also were many things intermingled about external and necessary affairs. And you have acted as though preparing a banquet for the mind so that the offered dainties might please the more from their diversity. And if indeed external affairs, like inferior and ordinary kinds of food, are less savoury, yet they have been treated by you so skilfully as to be taken gladly, since even contemptible kinds of food are usually made sweet by the sauce of one who cooks well. Now, while the truth of the History is kept to, what I had said some time ago about its divine meaning ought not to be rejected. …