Hebrews 3:17
And with whom was he offended forty years? Was it not with them that sinned, whose carcasses were overthrown in the desert?
Open Hebrews 3:17 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quibus autem infensus est quadraginta annis ? nonne illis qui peccaverunt, quorum cadavera prostrata sunt in deserto ?
- Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
- τίσιν δὲ προσώχθισεν τεσσεράκοντα ἔτη; οὐχὶ τοῖς ἁμαρτήσασιν, ὧν τὰ κῶλα ἔπεσεν ἐν τῇ ἐρήμῳ;
Haydock's commentary
Whose carcasses were laid, or buried in the desert? None of those who were reckoned up (Numbers xiv.) entered the land of Chanaan[Canaan], except Josue[Joshua] and Caleb; but then we may take notice, that none were there numbered under twenty years of age, nor the Levites, nor the women. (Witham)
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 John Chrysostom The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews, Hebrews 3.7-11
( Ch. iii. 16-19 .) “For some when they had heard did provoke, howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses: And with whom was He grieved forty years? Was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcasses fell in the wilderness? And to whom swear He that they should not enter into His rest, but to them that believed not? So we see, that they could not enter in because of unbelief.” After again repeating the testimony, he adds also the question, which makes the argument clear. For he said (he repeats), “To-day if ye hear His voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.” Of whom does he speak (he says) [as] having been hardened? Of whom [as] not believing? Is it not of the Jews?
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).