Genesis 37:25
And sitting down to eat bread, they saw some Ismaelites on their way coming from Galaad, with their camels, carrying spices, and balm, and myrrh to Egypt.
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- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et sedentes ut comederent panem, viderunt Ismaëlitas viatores venire de Galaad, et camelos eorum portantes aromata, et resinam, et stacten in Ægyptum.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐκάθισαν δὲ φαγεῖν ἄρτον· καὶ ἀναβλέψαντες τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἴδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ ὁδοιπόροι Ἰσμαηλεῖται ἤρχοντο ἐκ Γαλαάδ, καὶ οἱ κάμηλοι αὐτῶν ἔγεμον θυμιαμάτων καὶ ῥιτίνης καὶ στακτῆς· ἐπορεύοντο δὲ καταγαγεῖν εἰς Αἴγυπτον.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֵּשְׁבוּ֮ לֶֽאֱכָל לֶחֶם֒ וַיִּשְׂא֤וּ עֵֽינֵיהֶם֙ וַיִּרְא֔וּ וְהִנֵּה֙ אֹרְחַ֣ת יִשְׁמְעֵאלִ֔ים בָּאָ֖ה מִגִּלְעָ֑ד וּגְמַלֵּיהֶ֣ם נֹֽשְׂאִ֗ים נְכֹאת֙ וּצְרִ֣י וָלֹ֔ט הוֹלְכִ֖ים לְהוֹרִ֥יד מִצְרָֽיְמָה
Haydock's commentary
To eat bread. How could they do this while their innocent brother was praying and lamenting! (chap. xlii. 21.) (Haydock)
Some: a caravan of merchants. (Du Hamel)
Balm, or rosin; "that of Syria resembles attic honey." (Pliny, Natural History)
Myrrh, (stacten); Hebrew, Lot: "drops of myrrh or laudanum, or of the Lotus tree." (Calmet)
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 Salvina
3. These remarks are intended to shew that the youth of whom I speak used his kinship to the royal family, his abundant wealth, and the outward tokens of power, as helps to virtue. For, as the preacher says, “wisdom is a defence and money is a defence” also. We must not hastily conclude that this statement conflicts with that of the Lord: “verily I say unto you that a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven; and again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.” Were it so, the salvation of Zacchæus the publican, described in scripture as a man of great wealth, would contradict the Lord’s declaration. …