Genesis 46:4
I will go down with thee thither, and will bring thee back again from thence: Joseph also shall put his hands upon thy eyes.
Open Genesis 46:4 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Ego descendam tecum illuc, et ego inde adducam te revertentem : Joseph quoque ponet manus suas super oculos tuos.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ ἐγὼ καταβήσομαι μετὰ σοῦ εἰς Αἴγυπτον, καὶ ἐγὼ ἀναβιβάσω σε εἰς τέλος· καὶ Ἰωσὴφ ἐπιβαλεῖ τὰς χεῖρας ἐπὶ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς σου.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אָנֹכִ֗י אֵרֵ֤ד עִמְּךָ֙ מִצְרַ֔יְמָה וְאָנֹכִ֖י אַֽעַלְךָ֣ גַם עָלֹ֑ה וְיוֹסֵ֕ף יָשִׁ֥ית יָד֖וֹ עַל עֵינֶֽיךָ
Haydock's commentary
Thence; in thy posterity. Septuagint add at last, or after a long time. Jacob's bones were brought back and buried in Chanaan. (Calmet)
Eyes, as he is the most dear to thee. Parents closed the eyes of their children in death. The Romans opened them again when the corpse was upon the funeral pile; thinking it a mark of disrespect for the eyes to be shut to heaven; "ut neque ab homine supremum eos spectari fas sit, & cœlo non ostendi, nefas." (Pliny, xi. 37.)
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 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. …