Isaias 28:10
For command, command again; command, command again; expect, expect again; expect, expect again: a little there, a little there.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Quia manda, remanda ; manda, remanda ; exspecta, reexspecta ; exspecta, reexspecta ; modicum ibi, modicum ibi.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- θλίψιν ἐπὶ θλίψιν προσδέχου, ἐλπίδα ἐπ᾽ ἐλπίδι, ἔτι μικρὸν ἔτι μικρόν,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- כִּ֣י צַ֤ו לָצָו֙ צַ֣ו לָצָ֔ו קַ֥ו לָקָ֖ו קַ֣ו לָקָ֑ו זְעֵ֥יר שָׁ֖ם זְעֵ֥יר שָֽׁם
Haydock's commentary
Command, &c. This is said in the person of the Jews, resisting the repeated commands of God, and still putting him off. (Challoner)
They deride the prophets, speaking words of no meaning, as if their predictions were no better. (St. Jerome)
Think they that we have to learn the first elements, or to join syllables together? (Calmet)
Hebrew Tsav latsav, &c. (Haydock)
The Nicholaites abused these words. (St. Epiphanius 25.)
Why do they not speak plain? Sometimes terrible things are denounced, then subjects of joy! Isaias answers, that since they pretend not to understand, God will lead them into a country where they shall indeed have to learn the language, like children, chap. xxix. 11. (Calmet)
Protestants, "for precept must be upon precept....line upon line....here a little, and there a little. For with stammering lips," &c. (Haydock)
Haydock wrote amid the controversies of his day. The Church teaches that those born into communities separated from her cannot be charged with the sin of separation, and embraces them as brothers (CCC 818).
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 The Letters of St. Jerome, To Eustochium
18. Envy always follows in the track of virtue: as Horace says, it is ever the mountain top that is smitten by the lightning. It is not surprising that I declare this of men and women, when the jealousy of the Pharisees succeeded in crucifying our Lord Himself. All the saints have had illwishers, and even Paradise was not free from the serpent through whose malice death came into the world. So the Lord stirred up against Paula Hadad the Edomite to buffet her that she might not be exalted, and warned her frequently by the thorn in her flesh not to be elated by the greatness of her own virtues or to fancy that, compared with other women, she had attained the summit of perfection. For my part I used to say that it was best to give in to rancour and to retire before passion. So Jacob dealt with his brother Esau; so David met the unrelenting persecution of Saul. …
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Demetrius
We read in the book of Job how, while the first messenger of evil was yet speaking, there came also another; and in the same book it is written: “is there not a temptation”, or as the Hebrew better gives it, “a warfare to man upon earth?” It is for this end that we labour, it is for this end that we risk our lives in the warfare of this world, that we may be crowned in the world to come. That we should believe this to be true of men is nothing wonderful, for even the Lord Himself was tempted, and of Abraham the scripture bears witness that God tempted him. …