Genesis 46:3
God said to him: I am the most mighty God of thy father: fear not, go down into Egypt, for I will make a great nation of thee there.
Open Genesis 46:3 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ait illi Deus : Ego sum fortissimus Deus patris tui : noli timere, descende in Ægyptum, quia in gentem magnam faciam te ibi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- λέγων Ἐγώ εἰμι ὁ θεὸς τῶν πατέρων σου· μὴ φοβοῦ καταβῆναι εἰς Αἴγυπτον, εἰς γὰρ ἔθνος μέγα ποιήσω σε ἐκεῖ·
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָנֹכִ֥י הָאֵ֖ל אֱלֹהֵ֣י אָבִ֑יךָ אַל תִּירָא֙ מֵרְדָ֣ה מִצְרַ֔יְמָה כִּֽי לְג֥וֹי גָּד֖וֹל אֲשִֽׂימְךָ֥ שָֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Fear not. He might be apprehensive, lest his children should be depraved, living among idolaters, or prefer Egypt before the promised land. He was also afraid to undertake this journey without consulting God. (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
Clement of Alexandria The Instructor, Chapter VII. Who the Instructor Is, and Respecting His Instruction
Again, when He speaks in His own person, He confesses Himself to be the Instructor: “I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.” Who, then, has the power of leading in and out? Is it not the Instructor? This was He who appeared to Abraham, and said to him, “I am thy God, be accepted before Me;” and in a way most befitting an instructor, forms him into a faithful child, saying, “And be blameless; and I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and thy seed.” There is the communication of the Instructor’s friendship. And He most manifestly appears as Jacob’s instructor. He says accordingly to him, “Lo, I am with thee, to keep thee in all the way in which thou shalt go; and I will bring thee back into this land: for I will not leave thee till I do what I have told thee.” He is said, too, to have wrestled with Him. …
St Jerome Against the Pelagians, Book III
8. A. We must use the words of Scripture not as you propose, but as truth and reason demand. Jacob says in his prayer, “If the Lord God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a token, shall be God’s house; and of all that Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.” He did not say, If thou preserve my free choice, and I gain by my toil food and raiment, and return to my father’s house. He refers everything to the will of God, that he may be found worthy to receive that for which he prays. On Jacob’s return from Mesopotamia an army of angels met him, who are called God’s camp. …