Judges 2:22
That through them I may try Israel, whether they will keep the way of the Lord, and walk in it, as their fathers kept it, or not.
Open Judges 2:22 in the Motif Searcher, word by word across all five texts →Show on the spiral →The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- ut in ipsis experiar Israël, utrum custodiant viam Domini, et ambulent in ea, sicut custodierunt patres eorum, an non.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- τοῦ πειράσαι ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν Ἰσραήλ, εἰ φυλάσσονται τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου πορεύεσθαι ἐν αὐτῇ, ὅν τρόπον ἐφύλαξαν οἱ πατέρες αὐτῶν, ἢ οὔ.
- Hebrew (WLC)
- לְמַ֛עַן נַסּ֥וֹת בָּ֖ם אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל הֲשֹׁמְרִ֣ים הֵם֩ אֶת דֶּ֨רֶךְ יְהוָ֜ה לָלֶ֣כֶת בָּ֗ם כַּאֲשֶׁ֛ר שָׁמְר֥וּ אֲבוֹתָ֖ם אִם לֹֽא
Haydock's commentary
Or not. The secrets of hearts cannot be hidden from the omniscience of God. (Calmet)
But he would have an experimental knowledge of the fidelity of his people, by leaving these nations in the midst of them. It was partly on this account that he withdrew the sword of Josue, who would otherwise have easily followed up his victories, and exterminated all the inhabitants. The cowardice and secret indispositions of the people was another obstacle. (Haydock)
God acted like a person who distrusted the fidelity of his servant, and left something in his way to see if we would steal it. (Calmet)
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 Cassian The Conferences of John Cassian. Part II. Containing Conferences XI-XVII, Chapter XIV. How God makes trial of the strength of man's will by means of his temptations
And this too we read that the Divine righteousness provided for in the case of Job His well tried athlete, when the devil had challenged him to single combat. For if he had advanced against his foe, not with his own strength, but solely with the protection of God’s grace; and, supported only by Divine aid without any virtue of patience on his own part, had borne that manifold weight of temptations and losses, contrived with all the cruelty of his foe, how would the devil have repeated with some justice that slanderous speech which he had previously uttered: “Doth Job serve God for nought? Hast Thou not hedged him in, and all his substance round about? but take away thine hand,” i.e., allow him to fight with me in his own strength, “and he will curse Thee to Thy face.” But as after the struggle the slanderous foe dare not give vent to any such murmur as this, he admired that he was vanqui …