Genesis 49:7
Cursed be their fury, because it was stubborn: and their wrath because it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and will scatter them in Israel.
Open Genesis 49:7 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Maledictus furor eorum, quia pertinax : et indignatio eorum, quia dura : dividam eos in Jacob, et dispergam eos in Israël.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐπικατάρατος ὁ θυμὸς αὐτῶν ὅτι αὐθάδης, καὶ ἡ μῆνις αὐτῶν ὅτι ἐσκληρύνθη· διαμεριῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ἰακώβ, καὶ διασπερῶ αὐτοὺς ἐν Ἰσραήλ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- אָר֤וּר אַפָּם֙ כִּ֣י עָ֔ז וְעֶבְרָתָ֖ם כִּ֣י קָשָׁ֑תָה אֲחַלְּקֵ֣ם בְּיַעֲקֹ֔ב וַאֲפִיצֵ֖ם בְּיִשְׂרָאֵֽל
Haydock's commentary
Scatter them. Levi had no division allotted to him, but only some cities among the other tribes; and Simeon had only a part of Juda's lot, which was so small, that his descendants were forced to seek for a fresh establishment; some in Gader, others in Mount Seir. (1 Paralipomenon iv. 39; Josue xi. 2.) Simeon alone was not blessed by Moses, Deuteronomy xxxiii. (Du Hamel)
The Levites obtained a blessing, on account of their distinguished zeal; (Numbers xxv.) while Zambri rivets, as it were, the curse upon the family of Simeon. (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
St Hippolytus On Genesis, Section I
Hipp . This he says regarding the conspiracy into which they were to enter against the Lord. And that he means this conspiracy, is evident to us. For the blessed David sings, “Rulers have taken counsel together against the Lord,” and so forth. And of this conspiracy the Spirit prophesied, saying, “Let not my soul contend,” desiring to draw them off, if possible, so that that future crime might not happen through them. “They slew men, and houghed the bull;” by the “strong bull” he means Christ. And “they houghed,” since, when He was suspended on the tree, they pierced through His sinews. Again, “in their anger they houghed a bull.” And mark the nicety of the expression: for “they slew men, and houghed a bull.” For they killed the saints, and they remain dead, awaiting the time of the resurrection. …
St John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom, Matthew II. 2
5. And if the Jews should raise a question touching the prophecy, and say, that the words, “Out of Egypt have I called my Son,” were uttered concerning themselves; we would tell them, This is a law of prophecy, that in many cases much that is spoken of one set of persons is fulfilled in another; of which kind is that which is said touching Simeon and Levi, “I will divide them,” saith He, “in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.” And yet not in themselves did this come to pass, but in their descendants; and Noah’s saying again about Canaan, came to pass in the Gibeonites, Canaan’s descendants. …
St John Chrysostom A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles, Homily XXIX on Acts xiii. 16, 17
This too might with reason be said to us: “Behold ye despisers.” For the Church indeed is in very evil case, although ye think her affairs to be in peace. For the mischief of it is, that while we labor under so many evils, we do not even know that we have any. “What sayest thou? We are in possession of our Churches, our Church property, and all the rest, the services are held, the congregation comes to Church every day.” True, but one is not to judge of the state of a Church from these things. From what then? Whether there be piety, whether we return home with profit each day, whether reaping some fruit, be it much or little, whether we do it not merely of routine and for the formal acquittance of a duty ( ἀφοσιούμενοι ). …
The Fathers are given as they wrote. Where a passage lays the Passion on the Jewish people, the Church teaches that it cannot be charged against all the Jews then living, nor against the Jews of today, and that all sinners were its authors (CCC 597, 598).