Genesis 43:34
Taking the messes which they received of him: and the greater mess came to Benjamin, so that it exceeded by five parts. And they drank, and were merry with him.
Open Genesis 43:34 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- sumptis partibus quas ab eo acceperant : majorque pars venit Benjamin, ita ut quinque partibus excederet. Biberuntque et inebriati sunt cum eo.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἦραν δὲ μερίδα παρ᾽ αὐτοῦ πρὸς αὐτούς· ἐμεγαλύνθη δὲ ἡ μερὶς Βενιαμεὶν παρὰ τὰς μερίδας πάντων πενταπλασίως πρὸς τὰς ἐκείνων. ἔπιον δὲ καὶ ἐμεθύσθησαν μετ᾽ αὐτοῦ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיִּשָּׂ֨א מַשְׂאֹ֜ת מֵאֵ֣ת פָּנָיו֮ אֲלֵהֶם֒ וַתֵּ֜רֶב מַשְׂאַ֧ת בִּנְיָמִ֛ן מִמַּשְׂאֹ֥ת כֻּלָּ֖ם חָמֵ֣שׁ יָד֑וֹת וַיִּשְׁתּ֥וּ וַֽיִּשְׁכְּר֖וּ עִמּֽוֹ
Haydock's commentary
Of him. Joseph, the master of the feast, sends a portion to each of his guests, according to the ancient custom. (Plutarch, Sympos. ii.)
Five parts: in order to distinguish Benjamin the more. So Hector reproaches Diomed for fleeing before him, though he was placed in the highest place at table among the Greeks, and had the largest portion both of meat and drink.
Merry. Inebriati sunt, sometimes means intoxicated: but it is not at all probably that Joseph's brethren would indulge in any such excess, while they knew him not, (Calmet) and were under the impressions of fear and wonder. They took what was sufficient, and even decently abundant, with thankfulness for so unexpected an honour. (Haydock)
The word is often taken in this sense, as at the feast of Cana, where Jesus would never have furnished such an abundance of wine for people already drunk. (John ii. 10; Proverbs xi. 24[25?].) Homer's feasts consist in every man taking what he pleased. (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
Origen Origen's Commentary on the Gospel of John, Chapter XXXIII
To what we have said must be added how the Son is the true vine. Those will have no difficulty in apprehending this who understand, in a manner worthy of the prophetic grace, the saying: “Wine maketh glad the heart of man.” For if the heart be the intellectual part, and what rejoices it is the Word most pleasant of all to drink which takes us off human things, makes us feel ourselves inspired, and intoxicates us with an intoxication which is not irrational but divine, that, I conceive, with which Joseph made his brethren merry, then it is very clear how He who brings wine thus to rejoice the heart of man is the true vine. He is the true vine, because the grapes He bears are the truth, the disciples are His branches, and they, also, bring forth the truth as their fruit. …