Isaias 49:20
The children of thy barrenness shall still say in thy ears: The place is too strait for me, make me room to dwell in.
Open Isaias 49:20 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →In the palace
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Adhuc dicent in auribus tuis filii sterilitatis tuæ : Angustus est mihi locus ; fac spatium mihi ut habitem.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- ἐροῦσιν γὰρ εἰς τὰ ὦτά σου οἱ υἱοί σου οὓς ἀπολώλεκας Στενός μοι ὁ τόπος, ποίησόν μοι τόπον ἵνα κατοικήσω.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- ע֚וֹד יֹאמְר֣וּ בְאָזְנַ֔יִךְ בְּנֵ֖י שִׁכֻּלָ֑יִךְ צַר לִ֥י הַמָּק֖וֹם גְּשָׁה לִּ֥י וְאֵשֵֽׁבָה
Haydock's commentary
Barrenness, of which thou complainest. He alludes to the captives who returned, and to Christian converts. (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
Eusebius The Church History of Eusebius, Panegyric on the Splendor of Affairs
52. For thy sons whom thou hast lost shall say in thine ears, The place is too narrow for me, give place to me that I may dwell. Then shalt thou say in thine heart, Who hath begotten me these? I am childless and a widow, and who hath brought up these for me? I was left alone, and these, where were they for me?’
St Gregory of Nyssa On the Baptism of Christ
Now I recognize my own flock: to-day I behold the wonted figure of the Church, when, turning with aversion from the occupation even of the cares of the flesh, you come together in your undiminished numbers for the service of God, when the people crowds the house, coming within the sacred sanctuary, and when the multitude that can find no place within fills the space outside in the precincts like bees. For of them some are at their labours within, while others outside hum around the hive. So do, my children: and never abandon this zeal. For I confess that I feel a shepherd’s affections, and I wish, when I am set upon this watch-tower, to see the flock gathered round about the mountain’s foot: and when it so happens to me, I am filled with wonderful earnestness, and work with pleasure at my sermon, as the shepherds do at their rustic strains. …